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Event: Interview with David Iliffe, ABC South Queensland
Date: 14 April 2025, 7:20am AEST
Speakers: Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia
Topics: federal election; housing crisis; first home buyers
E&OE
David Iliffe, ABC South Queensland: Well, two big announcements when it comes to one of the key issues, what was always going to be an integral issue in the voters’ minds in the lead up to this federal election coming up in May. Over the weekend, two big announcements, the Coalition announced a new policy that would allow first home buyers to deduct up to $11,000 a year in interest repayments for five years when building a new home. The Labor government alternatively announced that a re-elected Labor government would expand the first home guarantee scheme and invest $10 billion for the construction of 100,000 new homes for first home buyers. Now, Master Builders. Australia has applauded both of those measures. Denita Wawn is CEO of Master Builders Australia. She joins me now. Denita Wawn, good morning. Welcome.
Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders: Good morning, David.
David: Thank you very much for your time. Can I ask you, not that it’s about playing favourites, but which of the two schemes announced over the weekend do you think will be most effective in achieving those aims?
Denita: Well, Master Builders believes that the Coalition may have a slight edge, simply because when you combine their mortgage deductions along with the fact that they have not quite but nearly matched the home deposit guarantee, voters , first home buyers may well be ahead of the game. But when we look at housing holistically, because there’s an awful lot of housing policies out there, we still think they’re neck and neck, and we still think they’ve both got gaps.
David: And would one of those gaps be the fact that neither of them gets over the biggest hurdle, which is finding the appropriate skilled labour to actually put both of these plans into action?
Denita: Absolutely, David. There’s some tinkering around the edges, but we still say that it’s not enough if we’re going to build all these houses that we know we need, that we know there’s demand for, but at the moment, people aren’t investing in because it’s too expensive. And why is it too expensive? In some instances, it’s because we don’t have enough labour at the right time. So our big issue still is more money towards apprenticeships, but these timelines that both parties put on yesterday mean that we also need to be looking at migration. Our competitors, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, all have fast track, specialist tradie visas, maintaining the quality of the building in terms of appropriate skills, but they all put a priority on tradies in migration, and we need to have that policy. So, still focused on both parties filling the gaps and people is a key component of that.
David: I mean, I guess both parties might come back and say, you know, fair call, that would be an answer. But then where are we going to house them? And it sort of becomes almost a circular argument, doesn’t it?
Denita: Yeah, it does, and I think that’s in part, the reason why both have cut down their migration numbers. But nevertheless, we would say when you’re looking at migration, the priority should be for skilled trade workers, for building our infrastructure, not just our homes, but our roads, our railway, our shops, our schools, the list goes on. We’ve got a couple of 100,000 short at the moment. And so, if the pressure is on the industry, which it is at the moment, and will continue to be, then priority status has to be given to those trade skills from a migration perspective. And that’s something that we’ve yet to hear.
David: So really, the federal government has got to see the construction of this many houses, the number that we that we need to bring us back up to speed. They’ve got to see that as a major project, much like the Snowy River scheme or much like some of the other big projects that we’ve taken on earlier in our nation’s history.
Denita: It’s a really good point. David. Now, I think everyone sort of tends to forget that housing in itself is a major infrastructure coordination effort by governments. And interestingly, when we did research, 70 per cent of Australians believe that it’s the federal government who has to lead us out of this housing crisis, even though many respect some decisions are those under the jurisdiction of state governments or local government. So, it is critical that the incoming federal government, whoever that may be, has a series of positions where they can ensure that all the levers that we need to fulfil our infrastructure needs in terms of housing are undertaken, and that’s whether it’s social, affordable housing, first home owners, high density housing, the list goes on, regional capital cities. This is a huge undertaking for our country if we’re going to house all Australians, which we’re not doing at the moment.
David: Just another question on the viability of the Coalition’s announcement, of the Coalition’s idea of making the first time buyers, allow them to deduct up to $11,000 a year in interest repayments for five years when building a new home. If such a scheme was introduced to existing homes, then the argument would probably be like most measures that are introduced to make housing more affordable, if it was existing homes, people would say, well, that’s just going to jack the price up even more, you know, because people will take that into consideration when they price their new homes. Is there a chance that could also translate even to could builders charge more, knowing that this does put buyers into a stronger position in terms of what they can afford, even in building new homes?
Denita: It’s an interesting proposition. We’ve seen both announcements yesterday by major parties, whether it’s the tax deduction for new home builds for first home owners, or the 100,000 new homes under the $10 billion announcement by the ALP. Economists are saying to both policies that it may well inflate costs, and that is why we say it is all well and good supporting those who are finding it difficult to get into the housing market, but you will have pressure on the industry and therefore increase costs if you also don’t resolve the constraints for us to actually deliver. We need capacity to deliver all of those homes, and if you don’t give us a new capacity, additional capacity, then costs may well drive up. And so that is why we say it’s only part of the puzzle. The announcements yesterday, we need to see more than helps us with capacity, and that’s the key issue here for us, more so than the handouts that we saw yesterday.
David: Final question, Denita Wawn. We’re getting towards the end of the election campaign. There’s still a few weeks to go, but with both of these announcements coming with pretty hefty price tags, are you concerned that might be as far as both parties are willing to go when it comes to housing, but there may be no more announcements?
Denita: Well, I doubt very much we will say some announcements, but you just never know. I’m sure both parties have got some things in their back pocket. Many of the things that we are seeking in terms of resolving our capacity constraints is really also policy issues that don’t require additional spending. So, we need more policy initiatives, not necessarily financial ones.
David: Understood. So yeah, here’s hoping there might still be some room for those from either party. We will wait and see. Denita Wawn very much appreciate your time at short notice, this morning. Thank you.
Denita: Pleasure, thanks David.
Media contact:
Dee Zegarac
National Director, Media & Public Affairs
0400 493 071
dee.zegarac@masterbuilders.com.au