Michael Sukkar MP

HOMEBUILDER SUPPORTING JOBS IN FORDE

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister for Housing
Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing

BERT VAN MANEN MP
Federal Member for Forde

MEDIA RELEASE

11 February 2021

HOMEBUILDER SUPPORTING JOBS IN FORDE

HomeBuilder is helping build a stronger Australia in 2021 by delivering effective support and stimulus to protect the jobs of the one million Australians employed in the construction sector.

Visiting Stoddart Group’s steel house frame manufacturing facility in the Forde electorate today, the Minister for Housing Michael Sukkar said HomeBuilder is delivering for Australia’s tradies.

“HomeBuilder was designed immediately to inject confidence and encourage buyers back into the market to offset the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the residential construction industry,” Minister Sukkar said.

“With over 81,000 applications received nationwide, more than 18,000 of which are from Queensland, on all counts HomeBuilder has more than achieved this objective.”

“From the carpenters, electricians and plumbers on site to the manufacturing workers here at Stoddart Group, HomeBuilder has kept hundreds of thousands of tradies in work who would have otherwise been facing the unemployment queue.”

Member for Forde Bert van Manen said HomeBuilder’s benefits are being seen throughout the Forde electorate.

“In Forde, over 13,500 residents are employed in construction and manufacturing and HomeBuilder has delivered the support our local tradies need,” Mr van Manen said.

“Stoddart Group is an important part of our local community and it is great to see that not only has HomeBuilder protected local jobs, but it has also been the catalyst for even more employment in our community as part of our comeback from the COVID-19 recession.”

Director of Stoddart Group Nick Cook said HomeBuilder had protected jobs in the residential construction supply chain and in fact had seen the company take on new workers.

“As a result of HomeBuilder, we have employed 40 new staff in our steel house frame business and Stoddart will increase the job sites we supply to from 30,000 to approximately 36,000,” Nick Cook said.

“To meet the extra demand Stoddart has also invested $1.5 million in six new metal roll forming machines. This investment was made easier by the Federal Government’s instant asset write-off extension.”

Every additional building approval and every addition home sale means more work for our tradies and activity in our economy at a time it needs it most.

The extension of HomeBuilder until 31 March 2021 also ensures there will be a steady pipeline of construction activity through to 2022 to lock in this momentum for the construction sector.

More information on the HomeBuilder programme can be found at: https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus/homebuilder.