With one in nine working Tasmanians now working in the construction industry, the state government is injecting half a billion dollars to ramp up housing supply across the state.
Housing Minister Felix Ellis on Thursday unveiled a $500 million housing and construction package, the first major announcement ahead of the 2025–26 state budget.
“We know just how important it is to deliver roofs over the heads of Tasmanians, whatever their age and stage,” Ellis said.
“It’s also critical that we have a strong pipeline of work for our home builders.”
The package includes extended stamp duty exemptions for first home buyers, ongoing support for the 2% deposit MyHome scheme and advances the state’s goal of delivering 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2032.
According to Ellis, the government is “ahead of schedule”, with more than 4,000 homes already delivered, half of them newly built.
Labor leader Dean Winter claimed the government’s numbers don’t stack up.
“In six years they’ve built six homes. You can’t take Felix Ellis or Jeremy Rockliff seriously on anything to do with housing,” Winter said.
Industry groups said the package would bring not only new homes but both social and economic benefits to the state.
“We know that Tasmanians need more houses and this announcement is very good for Tasmania,” Master Builders’ Vonette Mead said.
“The industry is at the ready to get the job done and we know that there are challenges that we need to continue to work with.”
“The industry needs to continue to fix planning, boost the workforce, grow productivity and definitely invest in housing and infrastructure.”
Beyond new builds, around $45 million a year will go towards crisis and emergency accommodation, including the 74-bed Bethlehem House facility in southern Tasmania.
The government has also promised to tackle red tape with Ellis pledging to block “any new federal government red tape in the National Construction Code for the next six years”.
“We’re also strongly focused on ensuring that we can improve our planning system,” he said.
“If you’re looking to build social and affordable housing and you meet the planning scheme, you should get a fair go. And that’s exactly what our Development Assessment Panel legislation that we’ll be bringing back to parliament will deliver as well.”
The full state budget will be handed down on May 29.
