Shadow Planning Minister Luke Edmunds and his colleagues must stop misleading Tasmanians that 215 social houses in Tasmania “remain untenantable” by repeating a point-in-time data report from more than a year ago.
What’s worse is Labor trying to turn this deception into a policy by pretending that somehow 215 extra social houses exist and could be used reduce the housing waiting list.
Labor knows that a small percentage of housing stock is always temporarily unavailable due to a number of reasons including repairs, maintenance or tenancy changes. Homes Tasmania’s advice is that one per cent or less of housing stock is offline at any given time which represents between 65 – 85 properties.
This is policy fakery at its worst.
The fact is, the Government’s housing plan is working: we are delivering more quality housing and helping to ease the pressure in the rental market.
Homes Tasmania has a massive pipeline of nearly 900 projects currently under construction and we will continue to see delivery ramp up.
Mr Edmunds’ support today of our successful MyHome shared equity program is very welcome, as is Labor also adopting our plan for 10,000 more social and affordable homes by 2032 as their own policy.
Mr Edmunds says he will also remove “unfair costs related to water, sewerage and power infrastructure” – but with absolutely no explanation of what it means or how this will be paid for.
Maybe this is another one of Labor’s phoney promises that will somehow ‘pay for itself’?
Mr Edmunds is happy to talk down the economy and spread doom and gloom, but he is clearly not talking to any borrowers or businesses in the housing and construction industry.
If he did, he would know that twelve interest rate rises since May 2022 significantly changes the landscape for building activity this year, when compared to last year – it’s the first thing that everyone raises with me.
All Mr Edmunds’ embarrassing media release shows is the Labor Party offers nothing except hollow negativity and fake promises to Tasmanians.
