Nat Barr has bluntly told Anthony Albanese’s government they are ‘well behind’ in their target of building 240,000 new homes a year amid the housing crisis.
The Federal Government is aiming to build 1.2million new homes over five years, which equates to 240,000 each year.
The plan comes amid low vacancy rates, skyrocketing rent and exorbitant house prices.
Education Minister Jason Clare appeared on Sunrise on Friday morning where he was grilled on why targets weren’t being met amid Labor committing $1billion to building roads and other infrastructure.
‘Only 163,000 new homes were commenced in 2023. You need 240,000 each year to reach your target. You’re well behind. How is this going to help?’ Barr said.
Mr Clare said infrastructure needed to be built before the homes could go up, including sewage systems, water connections, gutters and roads.
‘If you want to turn back lots into backyards, you have to build infrastructure,’ the education minister said.
‘This is what the billion dollars is all about.’
Nat Barr has bluntly told Anthony Albanese ‘s government they are ‘well behind’ in their target of building 240,000 new homes a year amid the housing crisis
He added Labor had this week put forward legislation to build more rental accommodation but the Liberal and Greens parties voted against it.
‘If we are going to build more homes, we also need the Liberal Party and Greens to stop playing games in the Parliament and vote to support the legislation that is going to help us do it,’ he said.
Deputy Leader of the Liberal party, Sussan Ley, also appeared on the program and said that in the two years since Labor was voted in ‘Jason and his people are not out of the blocks yet’.
‘I have met with people building houses, they are on the tools and signing contracts and out there trying to make this happen because we have wonderful businesses who care about the job they do,’ she said.
‘They are telling us it is too expensive to build a home and Labor’s costs are making it worse when it comes to energy. Labor has brought in more migrants last year than any time in Australia’s history. We have a housing crisis, what we have to do is get back to basics.’
Barr then confronted Ms Ley over why her party didn’t vote in favour of the legislation put forward by Labor for more rental homes.
Ms Ley claimed it was a ‘bad policy’, that would only make ‘rich fund managers richer and prevent more Australians from getting into a rental’.
Mr Clare chimed in and said Ms Ley’s comments were ‘absolute rubbish’ but she continued on her rant, adding Liberal will ‘never support bad policy’.
The Federal Government is aiming to build 1.2 million new homes over five years, which equates to 240,000 each year (pictured are construction workers in Sydney)
‘This is about rich fund managers building homes and unfortunately they may not be affordable for Australians,’ she said, as Mr Clare continued to interrupt and shut her down.
‘It’s about building homes for Aussies,’ he said.
Ms Ley disregarded Mr Clare’s interruption and said ‘the numbers are just so small’.
‘It’s two years in and you’ve sprayed money at the state governments but nothing is happening,’ she said.
The education minister then said he felt like he was in the song ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheel, as he had ‘clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right’.
‘You’ve got these fringe parties, the Liberal Party, and Greens are in bed together to stop building houses for Australians. The Australians are stuck in the middle,’ he said.
Barr agreed and said she was ‘stuck in the middle’ between the two politicians.
‘I am stuck in the middle and the Australians are stuck in the middle. It is two decades in the making, not two years. It didn’t start two years ago,’ she said.
The Albanese government announced $11.3billion would be invested in housing initiatives during the Budget in May.
The government will also spend $1billion building roads, sewers, energy, water and community infrastructure needed for more homes.
Construction companies have been collapsing across Australia, blaming soaring cost in materials and a shortage in the workforce.
Mr Albanese earlier said the injection of funds would help kick-start construction on a national scale.
‘This isn’t about one suburb or one city or one state. It’s a challenge facing Australians everywhere and it needs action from every level of government,’ he said.
