Building a Budget strategy with Master Builders Australia

Putting building and construction at the centre of the Budget recovery “makes perfect sense,” Denita Wawn, CEO, Master Builders Australia says, “with every $1 spent generating $3, construction is recovery’s accelerator.”

“How the Government tackles the challenges of confidence and time will be key to the Budget’s overall success.”

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She notes that their members depend mostly on private sector demand and that business investment and employment take around 4 times longer to recovery than the broader economy. “When it comes to infrastructure, they must feel the need for speed. Immediate construction must be the focus because without it there is no stimulus, there are no jobs.”

A recommendation from Wawn for the focus of the scope of the infrastructure spending should also extend beyond roads, “Building new hospitals, university campuses, and social housing, research and defence facilities must also be part of building us out of recession.”

And this limited scope and lack of forward thinking is what will slow Australia’s economic recovery in a post-COVID world. “The Federal Budget, as the title indicates, is the budget for the Federation. State and territory jurisdictions must play their role. Harnessing the highly effective HomeBuilder model to provide state governments with the opportunity to fund more projects in shortened time frame would see projects rolling out faster,” Wawn said. “Dwelling investment also falls hard during economic down turns and this one is the most severe for nearly 100 years. In the 1991 recession housing investment took twice as long to recover as the broader economy.”

In Wawn’s opinion, based on previous recovery models, the HomeBuilder scheme needs to be extended for a further 12 months from the end of the year to support builders and tradies, alongside including a business investment allowance which will “generate an increase in private capital investment on every previous occasion in history,” she said. It sounds like we need to be looking back to the past to build a strong economic future.

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