The effectiveness of the Albanese Government’s flagship incentive program to reward states and territories for building more homes in a bid to solve the housing crisis has been criticised by the key jurisdiction tasked with building the most new dwellings. Source: The Australian.
New South Wales has given up on receiving a Commonwealth cash splash from hitting the targets set by the federal government, with the state’s planning minister saying a share of up to $900 million hasn’t been factored into future budget plans and would instead be better used as instant infrastructure funding.
Divided up by the percentage of homes each state is obliged to build, NSW is entitled to $900m of the $3 billion funding pot of rewards under the Commonwealth’s New Homes Bonus program.
“NSW has not factored a future payment into its budget. We are investing an average of $81 million a day in infrastructure to support homes and jobs but would always welcome additional financial support from the federal government,” NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully said.
Mr Scully said his view that the Albanese Government’s support should instead come in the form of upfront payments for infrastructure was strengthened by last week’s carve up of GST, which resulted in NSW getting its lowest ever overall share of payments at $26.1 billion.
Coalition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said the Commonwealth’s reward program wasn’t an effective measure to shift the dial on housing.
“Labor is so bad at housing that it cannot even pay the states to build homes,” Mr Bragg said.
“The Commonwealth has broken the iron rule of Australian politics – never get between a premier and a bucket of money.”
Under the five-year housing accord, NSW has been set a target of building about 377,000 new homes, more than 30 per cent of the 1.2 million dwelling benchmark set by the federal government.
Since the accord period began a year and a half ago, the country is 80,000 homes short of what is required.
A spokesman for federal Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said “real progress” was happening under the accord, stating that home start-ups are up more than 10 per cent compared to a year ago.
FULL STORY
NSW snubs federal government’s flagship $900m housing bonus scheme (By Lachlan Leeming, The Australian)
