Home Improvement Scheme: Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler rules out expanding $100m tradie program again

INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Eva Lawler has ruled out expanding the government’s $100 million Home Improvement Scheme at this stage for those who missed last week’s ‘sudden’ deadline

Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler said the government is not looking to extend the Home Improvement Scheme any further at this stage. Picture: Keri Megelus

INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Eva Lawler has ruled out expanding the government’s $100 million Home Improvement Scheme at this stage for homeowners who missed last week’s ‘sudden’ application deadline

Minister Lawler said so far 135 voucher applications, for projects worth about $800,000, had been approved since the scheme rolled out on Monday.

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The government received 19,584 applications in total by last Friday’s deadline.

Frustrated homeowners who missed the ‘sudden’ deadline have called on government to consider extending the scheme further but Ms Lawler says its not going to happen.

“No, not at this stage — $100 million is a lot of money,” she said.

“Maybe if the Federal Government could give us another $100 million towards this but at this stage, ‘no’ … at the moment our tradies will already have a big stream of work.”

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The Minister said she understood why people who missed out were so frustrated.

“We’ve had a number of these schemes in the past so I think the Territorians who previously applied knew and got in very early,” she said.

“We saw a large rush over those first few days but then we took that amount of money from $30 million to $60 million. It then needed to be cut off, it can’t be unlimited.”

She said the Jobs Rescue and Recovery team will aim to process around 600 – 800 voucher applications each week with all 19,584 applications assessed over the next six months.