Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and the Minister for the Status of Women. How is the government’s commitment to building new social housing dwellings supporting jobs?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for that question. Today marks the anniversary of the announcement of the nation building and economic stimulus plan. It had two goals: to protect the Australian economy from the effects of the worst recession in 75 years and to build investment in Australia’s future. The social housing element of the program was the largest investment in social housing at a time when investment was desperately needed in the housing industry to support jobs. As the Treasurer said earlier, by the end of December 6,675 homes had been commenced. As at the end of January, 7,784 homes are being built, with almost 500 completed and 70,000 repairs and maintenance jobs are underway, with over 42,000 completed. In fact, in the electorate of the member for Banks, we have seen the social housing program deliver 207 homes—116 are underway and three are already complete. Of course, that is great for local business and it is great for the most vulnerable people in our society.

As I have been travelling around the country I have heard many stories from local builders and local tradespeople. I was with the member for Kingston not so long ago looking at developments in that electorate. Last May, I visited a new housing site in Hackam west in Adelaide’s southern suburbs. When I was there I met Bradley Jansen, the Managing Director of Qattro, a company that had won a contract to build houses in Hackam. They already had land and they planned to build 16 homes, but the global financial crisis really knocked them for six. Because the private market slowed down, Qattro were thinking about making some redundancies.

Within two weeks of the government making its social housing announcement, Qattro had attended an information session and they saw opportunities for their business. The Hackam project was approved in round 1 of the social housing projects and as a result they deferred two planned redundancies. Recently, the member for Kingston invited me back to see the progress on that development. I have to say it was terrific to see that construction had started on 30 June on 13 three-bedroom homes and three 2-bedroom homes and some other work was being done on an existing property. That work has progressed apace. A number of those homes have been completed and Qattro are looking at doing the roadworks now on that development. By July people will be moving into those new homes.

Mark Gardiner from Qattro told me about the jobs that this development was supporting. He talked about 20 full-time subcontractors working on this one development. They put on three new staff in their office to manage the work they were doing. Because of this stimulus work they were doing on this development, the money had been released for them to undertake other jobs that meant the pipeline was there. It is not just the stimulus work that is happening for them; having money in their business means that they can keep working on other much-needed homes across Adelaide, particularly in the southern suburbs.

I want to say one other thing about these jobs. The member for Kingston and the Minister for Employment Participation held a local jobs forum in the Kingston electorate. Qattro went along to that forum and because they went they were able to employ local people. They were able to put on local contractors and subcontractors. They were able to source their kitchens locally. It meant that they were able to employ local people not just on the stimulus work; they will be able to provide ongoing employment on the 100 or so properties they build in those southern suburbs of Adelaide every year. There is the job’s effect of the stimulus package but there is the ongoing jobs effect of having Qattro in touch with local builders, local plumbers, local electricians, local carpenters, local bricklayers and the ongoing work that those contractors and subcontractors will get. Behind the success story that is the social housing element of the stimulus package are hundreds of stories like this—great local employment outcomes.