Legislative Council Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2) 54 2 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time HomeBuilder Program HomeBuilder Program The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD Legislative Council HomeBuilder Program The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:21): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the chamber on the number of applications for the HomeBuilder grant? The Hon. R.I. LUCAS Legislative Council HomeBuilder Program The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:22): There has been enormous initial interest in the HomeBuilder grant: the $25,000 grant announced by the federal government to try to help stimulate new home construction nationally, but in South Australia as well. The expressions of interest, which is the extent to which people can express their interest at this stage—I think I issued a press release on the weekend that indicated that the South Australian government had signed up to the national partnership agreement for HomeBuilder. I think we were the second state jurisdiction to sign up after Tasmania, although I'm informed that this week a number of the other bigger jurisdictions in the Eastern States may now be either signing up to the national partnership agreement or about to sign up to the national partnership agreement. There is the capacity both on the federal government's website and on the state government's website to express interest in the HomeBuilder scheme and I'm advised that, I think it was at the end of last week, there were just over 4,000 expressions of interest in the HomeBuilder grant. I hasten to say that not all of those people will be eligible. They will have to go through the eligibility criteria but given that the initial estimates from the commonwealth government, or our share of the national estimates of the total number of grants to be provided would have been just under 2,000, it would appear that there may well be significantly more interest in South Australia in terms of the HomeBuilder grant, for the obvious reason that if you add as a first new home builder the $25,000 federal grant with the state government's provision of a $15,000 grant, you have $40,000 towards the building of a new home. Given the cost competitive nature of the South Australian home building market, $40,000 goes a lot further in South Australia than $40,000 in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane. The President Legislative Council The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Pangallo, you have a supplementary question?