Nat Barr has bluntly told Anthony Albanese’s government that it is “way behind schedule” on its target of building 240,000 new homes a year amid the housing crisis.
The Federal Government has set a target of building 1.2 million new homes over five years, equivalent to 240,000 each year.
The plan comes amid low unemployment rates, skyrocketing rents and exorbitant housing prices.
Education Minister Jason Clare appeared on Sunrise on Friday morning where he was questioned about why targets were not being met amid Labor’s $1 billion commitment to build roads and other infrastructure.
“In 2023, only 163,000 new homes will be built. 240,000 are needed a year to reach the goal. We are very far from reaching it. How is this going to help?” Barr asked.
Clare said infrastructure needed to be built before houses could be built, including sewage systems, water connections, sewers and roads.
“If you want to turn the lots into backyards, you have to build infrastructure,” said the Minister of Education.
“This is what a billion dollars is all about.”
He added that the Labor Party had introduced legislation this week to build more rental housing, but the Liberal and Green parties voted against it.
Nat Barr has bluntly told Anthony Albanese’s government that it is “way behind schedule” on its target of building 240,000 new homes a year amid the housing crisis.
“If we are going to build more housing, we also need the Liberal Party and the Greens to stop playing games in Parliament and vote to support legislation that will help us do it,” he said.
Liberal Party deputy leader Sussan Ley also appeared on the show and said that in the two years since the Labor Party was elected, “Jason and his people are still not out of power.”
“I’ve met people who are building houses, they’re working, they’re signing contracts and they’re trying to make this happen because we have wonderful companies that care about the work they do,” he said.
‘We are being told it is too expensive to build a house and labor costs are making things worse when it comes to energy. Last year the Labor Party attracted more immigrants than at any other time in Australia’s history. “We have a real estate crisis, what we have to do is go back to the basics.”
Barr then confronted Ley about why his party did not vote in favor of legislation brought forward by Labor for more rental housing.
Ms Ley said it was “bad policy”, which would only make “wealthy fund managers richer and prevent more Australians from getting rents”.
Mr Clare intervened and said Ms Ley’s comments were “absolute rubbish”, but continued his speech, adding that the Liberals “will never support bad policy”.
The Federal Government plans to build 1.2 million new homes over five years, equivalent to 240,000 each year (pictured: construction workers in Sydney)
“These are rich fund managers building houses and unfortunately they may not be affordable for Australians,” she said, as Mr Clare continued to interrupt and shut her down.
“This is about building homes for Australians,” he said.
Ms Ley ignored Mr Clare’s interruption, saying “the numbers are very small”.
“Two years have passed and money has been injected into state governments, but nothing has happened,” he said.
The Education Minister then said he felt like he was in the Stealers Wheel song ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ as he had ‘clowns to my left and jokers to my right’.
‘We have these fringe parties, the Liberal Party and the Greens who are together to stop building houses for Australians. “Australians are caught in the middle,” he said.
Barr agreed, saying she was “stuck in the middle” between the two politicians.
“I’m caught in the middle and the Australians are caught in the middle. It’s two decades of preparation, not two years. It didn’t start two years ago,” he said.
The federal government announced that $11.3 billion would be invested in housing initiatives during the May Budget.
The government will also spend $1 billion building the roads, sewers, power, water and community infrastructure needed for more housing.
Construction companies have been collapsing across Australia, blaming rising material costs and labour shortages.
Albanese previously said the injection of funds would help boost construction on a national scale.
“This is not about one suburb, one city or one state. This is a challenge facing Australians everywhere and one that requires action from all levels of government,” he said.