Building interest: Liberals tout benefits of housing programs

ARMSTRONG Creek and Geelong have been described as the “epicentre” of the positive impact of the federal Liberal Government’s housing programs.

Minister for Housing Michael Sukkar and Liberal candidate for Corangamite Stephanie Asher visited a house under construction in Armstrong Creek on Tuesday this week.

Mr Sukkar said his government had introduced several programs to support the housing industry and house purchasers over the past two-and-a-half years, including HomeBuilder, the First Home Guarantee, the New Home Guarantee and the Family Home Guarantee.

“Among all those programs, we’ve helped about 300,000 Australians get into their first home or a new home, and one of the most significant regions in the country for that has been where we are today, the Geelong and Armstrong Creek area, where disproportionately, there are more first home buyers and more new home buyers than almost any other region in the country.

“So this is a bit of an epicentre of those housing programs, and it’s always nice to get out and see exactly what’s happening with the programs that we’ve put in place.”

He said housing projects funded through Homebuilder – which provided $25,000 grants (later reduced to $15,000) for constructing a new dwelling or carrying out major renovations on an existing home – would continue for another 12-14 months, depending on build time.

“We’ve got 135,000 HomeBuilder projects, about 70,000 of which have reached a milestone, and there’s therefore about another 65,000 to be built.”

He said offering the grants had not distorted the market but had instead saved about half a million jobs in the construction industry.

“As far as the Corangamite electorate goes, there’s a very, very big residential construction industry here – from the tradies to the people who work in the construction companies themselves.”

Ms Asher said there was a wide demographic mix of people who were choosing to live in Armstrong Creek.

“It’s a magnificent place to live, so it’s good to see it appeals to so many different people.”

Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker said HomeBuilder had been “a lucky dip for some, but many missed out for no good reason”.

“The government set unrealistic completion targets during a pandemic, leaving many people disappointed and out of pocket.”

Mr Sukkar visited Armstrong Creek in April of this year, also to spruik the benefits of HomeBuilder.

Neither Mr Sukkar nor Ms Asher would be drawn on the date of next year’s federal election.

“That’s not Steph’s decision and it’s not mine either,” Mr Sukkar said.

As well as being the Liberal candidate for Corangamite, Ms Asher is also the incumbent mayor of the City of Greater Geelong, but she said voters would be able to tell the difference between her two roles.

“I’m a community representative in both capacities, and that’s what’s most important,” she said.