Labor has been slammed for bragging about building 17 new homes in Canberra in seven months – a far cry from its target of 1.2million homes in five years.
‘We’re here in Canberra visiting some brand spanking new homes, what do you reckon Chris?’ Minister for Housing Clare O’Neil said in a TikTok on Friday.
In an awkward game of catch, she tossed the phone to Chris Steel, ACT Minister for Planning and Sustainable Development, who then turned the camera on himself.
‘Pretty good, 17 class C adaptable homes for new residents,’ said a grinning Steel.
He then threw the phone to Labor MP David Smith, who added: ‘A great example of two Labor governments working together and taking pressure off housing right here in Bean’.
‘And the good news is we’re just getting started,’ O’Neil said after Smith had tossed the phone back to her.
‘This is 17 out of 55,000 social and affordable homes that our government is going to deliver to Australians over the coming few years.’
The 55,000 social and affordable homes O’Neil mentioned fall under Labor’s broader target of building 1.2million homes over five years from mid-2024.
‘We’re here in Canberra visiting some brand spanking new homes, what do you reckon Chris?’ Minister for Housing Clare O’Neil said in a video shared to TikTok on Friday (pictured)
The 55,000 social and affordable homes O’Neil (pictured right) mentioned fall under Labor’s broader target of building 1.2million homes over five years from mid-2024
The policy known as the National Housing Accord includes $3.5billion in payments to state, territory and local governments to support the delivery of new homes towards the target, and a one-off $2billion payment to help states and territories to increase social housing stock.
Aussies were quick to criticise the video, slamming the lacklustre seven-month timeframe for building just 17 houses.
’17 homes in seven months… At that rate it will take you 1,886 years to complete the remaining 55,000 homes,’ one said.
‘You should reach your target by 2080 – what a joke,’ said another.
‘Do you realise another major building company has just declared bankruptcy?’ a third asked.
Critics have labelled Labor’s housing target unrealistic, if not impossible, amid soaring construction costs and unfettered immigration.
Labor’s policy requires 240,000 homes to be delivered every single year for five years – a significant improvement on Australia’s record year of construction in 2017, when about 223,000 homes were built.
Labor’s policy requires 240,000 homes to be delivered every single year for five years (stock)
Leith van Onselen, who formerly worked at the Australian Treasury and is the chief economist at MacroBusiness, said the construction sector was struggling.
‘As a result, builders are caught between a rock and a hard place whereby they can’t deliver stock at a profitable level, and that has created a major handbrake on housing construction,’ Mr van Onselen said.
‘We’re still seeing lots of builders going under, and they’re struggling to make a profit at the moment, which just means this housing construction target from the federal government is completely unrealistic.
‘It’s just too expensive to build housing in Australia at the moment, for a variety of reasons, and that just means that less housing is going to be built at the same time the government has the throttle on immigration.’
