NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey vows to ‘build, build, build’ to boost growth, turbocharge housing supply

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has urged his re-elected federal counterparts to boost productivity and help the Minns government tackle the housing market, vowing to ‘build, build, build’ to propel state growth.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has urged his re-elected federal counterparts to use their “powerful mandate” to boost productivity and help the Minns government tackle the “punishing” housing market, vowing to “build, build, build” to propel state growth.

Due to hand down his state budget in June, Mr Mookhey made the remarks at Sydney’s McKell Institute on Monday, highlighting delays and long wait times to major projects as a key drag on the state and its economy.

In his first major address since Anthony Albanese’s May 3 re-election, Mr Mookhey said the NSW government would “eagerly” work with federal Labor to get more people into a home, flagging that housing goal as a tenet of his June budget.

“We will use the next budget to take the next steps forward in building the homes we need to make sure we can house the people we cannot do without to keep our economy humming,” he said.

Mr Mookhey said the Albanese government’s clear majority had “engendered stability” and that it should use its “powerful mandate” to “carry forth the task of national modernisation”.

NSW was “eager to partner” with the federal government “at a time when inflation is receding, but the threat of low growth is increasing, amid a punishing housing crisis, tremendous uncertainty in global trade, but with real wages growing, interest rates falling and public finances beginning to stabilise”, he said on Monday, adding that lifting productivity required the state to “build, build, build”.

Welcoming the federal Help to Buy housing scheme, Mr Mookhey said easing the housing crisis remained a tenet of the state government’s focus, and on Monday it also banned no-grounds evictions.

“Housing is shelter, it is security. It is where people make a home and a life. It is where people find connection. It also makes a big difference to economic mobility,” Mr Mookhey said.

“The home you live in determines the job you can reach, the school your child attends, and the support network around you.

“But right now, housing insecurity is acting as a drag on productivity and a barrier to belonging.”

Mr Mookhey pointed to the government’s low- and mid-rise housing policy, and that it was “standing firm” against efforts to “delay or dilute (housing) supply,” including by councils.

“We are tackling this from every angle: the largest investment in social housing since World War II, stronger protections for renters, record increases to homelessness services,” he said.

Mr Mookhey said the big complaint from businesses and investors on what was stunting growth was “the time it takes to get major projects done”.

“Construction costs are rising, planning delays are slowing delivery, and the construction workers we need to literally build our brighter future are increasingly scarce,” he said.

“Which means … The time to build is now. To boost investment, we need to get projects built faster.”

According to Mr Mookhey, businesses were delaying investing in NSW because of major project delays, which are stopping more private sector investment from unlocking the “next great era of Australian economic growth”.

“Getting major projects – the projects that drive productivity – getting them done in NSW is taking too long,” he said.

“The task begs us all to support investment in infrastructure and technology so our workers have the very best tools of trade (and) to encourage regulatory experimentation to boost efficiency and innovation so we have a smart state instead of a slow state.”

Additional reporting: NewsWire