NSW Labor launches hard sell on housing

The NSW Labor government spent budget boxing day attempting to convince voters it could actually build the 30,000 homes it has budgeted.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

The NSW Labor government spent budget boxing day attempting to convince voters it could ­actually build the 30,000 homes it has promised over five years, amid workforce shortages and soaring costs, and defending its run of deficits despite higher-than-forecast revenue over the next four years.

Following questions about a potential forecasting error, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey insisted the state had lost $12bn in GST payments despite budget papers showing it was $6bn.

“It’s 12 … The book says six ­because we get the ‘no worse off’ guarantee …, the GST pool’s gotten bigger, NSW is getting a smaller share of a bigger pie. That’s what going on here. And if we simply apply the exact same share of the GST from last year to this year, we’d be getting a bigger share of a bigger pie,” he said.

Mr Mookhey said every extra dollar coming in from increased stamp duty over the past 12 months as a result of inflated property prices – which had created a revenue windfall in the budget of close to $12bn over four years – was “going back into solving the housing crisis”.

“It also is the reason why we can absorb some of the $11.9bn that NSW lost as a result of the GST rip-off imposed on this state,” he said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

As Premier Chris Minns spruiked his $5bn budget “centrepiece” of 8400 new ­social homes and surplus land for another 21,000 homes, he acknowledged potential workforce shortages and said it was an issue for the federal government.

“The mix of inbound migrants over the next few years is really important,” he said. “We know we need construction workers for housing. That is the stated goal of the commonwealth government – to ease inbound migration to ease the housing stress.

“Unless we can get construction workers to build those houses it’s not going to work.”

Mr Minns also said this housing plan would work while others had failed because the government has “completely re-zoned Sydney’s density levels, particularly around public transport stations” and “removed bureaucracy and roadblocks for new builds”.

Housing Minister Rose Jackson admitted there was “a lot of headwind in the building new homes space”, citing rising costs, interest rates, and supply and ­labour shortages, but said she had “a lot of confidence that government, using our heft and our muscle and our dollar, can really get things started”.

“We have sites ready, we have partners ready, we have plans ready, all that’s been missing has been the resources to actually build the home and those resources are now available,” she said. “I have a lot of confidence … we’ll be able to get on with this quickly and that we’ll be able to deliver the thousands of homes we’ve budgeted for.”

A land audit identified an ­initial 44 sites – mostly in Sydney – not being used by government, and Mr Minns said the first four would be announced “within weeks”. On timelines, he said: “We hope to have all of the sites either delivered to our private construction partners or Landcom within four years.”

He also said he would like to bring the run of deficits down sooner. “We’re bringing down debt. We’re doing it in a responsible way,” he said.