Government stimulus measures should be subject to scrutiny, Labor says

Labor has called for parliament to be given the opportunity to scrutinise all of the Morrison government’s stimulus measures after it emerged the government does not need legislation to implement its new “homebuilder” scheme supporting renovations in private residences.

Last week, the government announced it would fund grants worth $25,000 for eligible singles and couples planning to build or renovate homes between June and the end of December, with the uncapped program estimated to cost taxpayers $688m.

With federal parliament set to resume for three days this week, government sources confirmed on Sunday the program would be rolled out within existing partnership agreements with the states, obviating the need to bring enabling legislation before the House. The scheme will be delivered through state revenue offices.

Labor’s deputy leader Richard Marles told the ABC on Sunday “parliament should be having a say in the way in which stimulus is rolled out”.

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The program has attracted criticism from some economists, and backbench MPs are also growing restive about the amount of expenditure being promised in an effort to counter the economic shock associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

A number of civil society groups argue the government would have been better off investing in social housing rather than funding renovations in private dwellings that may have been in train without assistance from taxpayers.

But the government says funds are estimated to be spent on 20,000 new home starts and 7,000 renovations. This was necessary because of an anticipated drop-off in new home starts in the second half of 2020.

Marles said on Sunday the government’s program needed improvement. “Right now, we say it could be done better, and we make this point, there was forecast to be 160,000 houses built in this country before Covid struck, and with the advent of Covid, that’s now 100,000 – a gap of 60,000”.

“By the government’s own figures, this measure is only going to add 10,000 houses to that pool,” he said.

“This should be done a whole lot better, and we’ve been talking over the last few weeks about a range of measures about spending more on social housing, trying to bring that spending forward, and around removing the cap on the first homeowner grant scheme – all of those are measures that could be done to get a better outcome here”.