Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Rennick for his question. I think everyone in this place understands the huge contribution that the construction sector has always played in being a key pillar of our economy, and it is a very essential pillar of our economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The Morrison government's HomeBuilder program is providing Australians with grants to build new homes or to renovate existing homes. I'm pleased to say that, as of 31 December 2020, more than 83,000 households had applied for this particular grant. I'm also pleased to inform the chamber that 80 per cent of the applications have been for new home construction. In your home state of Queensland, Senator Rennick, there have been more than 18,000 applications to this program. That has been absolutely fundamental in assisting the state's building industry. The ABS is now reporting that approvals for private sector houses rose by 7.5 per cent in December, reaching the highest levels that we've seen since 1994.

At the outset of the pandemic, sales of houses virtually stopped overnight and up to 500,000 jobs across many industries were put at risk. But, as we ended 2020, new home sales were up 32.5 per cent compared to the previous year, a remarkable turnaround thanks to this amazing program and the investment that we've made in the construction industry.

HomeBuilder was created as a stimulus to increase confidence and encourage buyers back into the market as the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic started to hit the market. We can now say with no doubt whatsoever that the HomeBuilder program has well and truly exceeded our expectations and its goals and has kept hundreds of thousands of tradies in work who otherwise would have been unemployed. We extended the program, and we are delighted—