Government payments masking inflationary issues: Master Builders
Australia’s peak building and construction industry association has said that the recent inflation rate has failed to tell the full story of Australia’s cost-of-living pressures, as the cost of property and living continues to rise.
The industry association explained that the federal government’s temporary energy rebates and rental assistance measures masked the impact of housing on inflation figures, calling on the market to rely on underlying inflation to gain a “truer view” of inflation.
While Australia’s annual inflation rate dropped to 2.8 per cent, Master Builders chief economist Shane Garrett explained that the rimmed mean inflation registered at +3.5 per cent.
To the expert, the figure remains too high.
The inflation figure was underpinned by a 6.7 per cent increase in rents and 4.8 per cent increase in the cost of new dwellings over the last year.
“Australia’s rate of inflation would be markedly lower if housing cost pressures weren’t so strong,” Garrett said in a recent statement.
Master Builders Australia CEO, Denita Wawn, outlined that a number of barriers hamper the supply of new houses onto the market, calling on the government to work together to deliver solutions.
“Increasing the supply of new homes, including rental accommodation, is crucial.
“A number of barriers continue to hamstring the industry’s ability to speed up the delivery of new homes including high building costs, labour shortages, CFMEU disruption and pattern EBAs, and planning delays.
“We can’t keep dragging our feet with the housing crisis. Meaningful action to address supply-side barriers in the housing market is not happening fast enough.
“Most of the solutions to the housing crisis are in ministerial portfolios outside of the housing portfolio, so ministers need to be working together to get the job done.
“For example, the industry is still awaiting the outcome of the reviews into the apprenticeship incentives system and the skilled migration core skills occupation list. These are both crucial if we’re going to tackle labour shortages,” Wawn concluded.