Budget 2022-23: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to visit Parramatta

One of the first stops the Prime Minister will spruik his budget is a community where ‘the great Australian dream of home ownership seems completely out of reach’.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit Parramatta on Friday when cost of living and housing affordability are expected to dominate discussions with a community feeling the pinch of soaring rents and businesses struggling to hire staff.

His visit follows Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ first budget that featured a New Housing Accord to build one million homes over five years from 2024, with $350m in extra funding for another 10,000 affordable homes.

A total of $4.6bn was allocated to increase childcare subsidy rates for families earning less than $530,000.

Parramatta federal Labor MP Andrew Charlton welcomed the budget and said more than 9000 families in his electorate would receive cheaper childcare.

He vowed the government was tackling the “major problem” of housing affordability in Parramatta, where 45 per cent of people own their own home — “much less” than the 66 per cent of people who own their homes across Australia.

Anthony Albanese and Andrew Charlton during the federal election campaign in April. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

“And that’s partly because house prices in Parramatta are high and rising — with prices up massively in many suburbs over the past year,’’ Mr Charlton said.

He said Pendle Hill house prices rose 25 per cent over the past year with the average house costing $1.2m, followed by Ermington (22 per cent, $1.8m), North Rocks (18 per cent, $1.8m) and Granville (11 per cent, $1m).

“In Parramatta, house prices are through the roof, and many families are struggling to keep up,’’ Mr Charlton said.

“Housing supply hasn’t kept up with demand, which means too many struggle to live close to where they work.’’

He said too many people were also on the waiting list for social housing.

“And for too many people in Parramatta, the great Australian dream of home ownership seems completely out of reach,’’ he said.

The skills shortage has hit businesses such as John Chammas’ Italian restaurant hard. Picture: John Appleyard

He said the budget would also address skills shortages, which is a major bugbear for the Parramatta business community because of the pandemic and light rail construction.

At Parramatta’s Church St dining strip, Mama’s & Papa’s owner John Chammas labelled the skills shortage as a “huge” problem.

“We’re still struggling with good workers,’’ he said.

“There’s a lot coming from overseas with no experience whatsoever. We train them from scratch.

“We probably need four or five at the moment.’’

Mr Chammas said he had lost between 15 and 20 staff over the past 12 months since the restaurant reopened after the Covid lockdown because many international workers were relocating to regional areas where they could fast-track the extension of their visas.

He estimated 90 per cent of applicants were from India and Nepal.

For Parramatta, pledges made to the community during the election were sealed during Tuesday’s budget.

They include $6.2m to upgrade Richie Benaud Oval at North Parramatta, $3.5m to revamp the “Little India” streetscape at Harris Park, $31m for new university places at Western Sydney University and Alphacrusis University College, $12m for Maronite aged care precinct and $6.1m for South Asian aged care.

On Friday, Business Western Sydney will also host a lunch with Mr Chalmers and opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor.

Originally published as Budget 2022-23: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to visit Parramatta