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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-18 Daily Xml
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Economic Stimulus Package

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:05): Supplementary: Treasurer, has your agency, the Treasury, produced any modelling on the impact on unemployment in South Australia of the withdrawal of JobKeeper?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:05): Nothing specific in terms of econometric modelling, if that is the nature of the question. Clearly, Treasury has looked broadly in that, when we brought the budget down last year, we were well aware that JobKeeper was going to end. That was the reason why the government announced a record $4 billion stimulus program and the reason why we didn't do as we were being called to do, and that is fire all our shots in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We knew that, as various programs transitioned out, there would be the need for ongoing support for business and industry over a two-year period. That is why we have carefully budgeted for two years. The best example of that is that we approved, I think many months ago now, a $75 million housing stimulus package, but we have decided not to fire all our shots in that particular area because, frankly, the residential housing sector is overcooked at the moment. Anyone who wants to undertake a small housing project in their backyard or an extension has almost no prospects of getting a tradie or a builder at the moment because—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Got to do it yourself.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: If they are talented like the Hon. Mr Ridgway, they can do it themselves. He can give testimony to his skills in that area, but some of us are less talented in that particular area.

The residential housing sector is overcooked in terms of being able to do things. So we have decided to delay the expenditure of the bulk of the $75 million housing stimulus package until we see the heat come out of the residential housing construction market, then we will be ready with a range of initiatives, later this year probably or possibly even early next year, to try to pick up the slack. Inevitably, with HomeBuilder, we have sucked forward a huge amount of the first-home builder demand. Inevitably, there will be a decline as we move off the peak.

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