❓ Hon Neil Thomson questions the Minister for Housing and Works about rising building costs impacting multi-unit developments. The Minister outlines government initiatives, but refers to the ABS for specific construction data.
AnsweredQoN 114Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
Housing—Multi-unit developments
114. Hon Neil Thomson to
the parliamentary secretary representing the
Minister for Housing and Works:
I refer to the
massive escalation in building costs in Western Australia and the negative
impact this is having on multi-unit developments.
(1) What is the minister doing about
this, given that the average cost per square metre is reported to be now over
$10,000 for an apartment dwelling?
(2) Does the minister have data on multi-unit
dwelling constructions in WA broken down into regions and in metropolitan
Perth?
(3) If yes to (1), can the minister
provide that data over the last 15 years in tabular form?
The President: Sorry, 15?
Hon Neil Thomson: Yes.
The President: That is stretching the boundaries of
standing order 105, but let us see how accommodating the minister might
be.
114. Hon Neil Thomson to
the parliamentary secretary representing the
Minister for Housing and Works:
I refer to the
massive escalation in building costs in Western Australia and the negative
impact this is having on multi-unit developments.
(1) What is the minister doing about
this, given that the average cost per square metre is reported to be now over
$10,000 for an apartment dwelling?
(2) Does the minister have data on multi-unit
dwelling constructions in WA broken down into regions and in metropolitan
Perth?
(3) If yes to (1), can the minister
provide that data over the last 15 years in tabular form?
The President: Sorry, 15?
Hon Neil Thomson: Yes.
The President: That is stretching the boundaries of
standing order 105, but let us see how accommodating the minister might
be.
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question and I provide the following
on behalf of the Minister for Housing and Works.
(1) The Cook Labor government has
undertaken many reforms to support both public and private developments of
medium and high-density housing across the state. This includes significant
planning reforms to ensure that consistent and timely decisions are made by
planning experts. Additionally, as part of our record $6.3 billion
investment in housing and homelessness, the state government is funding the $80 million
Infrastructure Development Fund, which is supporting the development of almost
10,000 dwellings. The state government has also released an expression of
interest for an advanced manufacturing facility to establish a prefabricated
housing facility to support the delivery of affordable medium and high-density
housing. Other reforms include, but are not limited to, partnering with the
federal government as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) to
deliver over 3,230 new affordable social homes across WA, and investing in
training to expand the size of the construction workforce to limit growth in labour
costs, with measures such as the group training organisations wage subsidy, the
construction visa subsidy program and Build a Life in WA programs, as well as
massive investments in low and fee-free TAFE. These workforce initiatives are
working with Western Australia's construction workforce, which has grown by
around 20% in just over three years to over 160,000.
(2)–(3) This data is collected by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics.
The President: That
really stretches the bounds of standing order 106. Although there is some
sympathy given that the structure of the question was broad and open-ended, I
strongly advise that those answers be reviewed before providing them to the
chamber in the future.
honourable member for some notice of the question and I provide the following
on behalf of the Minister for Housing and Works.
(1) The Cook Labor government has
undertaken many reforms to support both public and private developments of
medium and high-density housing across the state. This includes significant
planning reforms to ensure that consistent and timely decisions are made by
planning experts. Additionally, as part of our record $6.3 billion
investment in housing and homelessness, the state government is funding the $80 million
Infrastructure Development Fund, which is supporting the development of almost
10,000 dwellings. The state government has also released an expression of
interest for an advanced manufacturing facility to establish a prefabricated
housing facility to support the delivery of affordable medium and high-density
housing. Other reforms include, but are not limited to, partnering with the
federal government as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) to
deliver over 3,230 new affordable social homes across WA, and investing in
training to expand the size of the construction workforce to limit growth in labour
costs, with measures such as the group training organisations wage subsidy, the
construction visa subsidy program and Build a Life in WA programs, as well as
massive investments in low and fee-free TAFE. These workforce initiatives are
working with Western Australia's construction workforce, which has grown by
around 20% in just over three years to over 160,000.
(2)–(3) This data is collected by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics.
The President: That
really stretches the bounds of standing order 106. Although there is some
sympathy given that the structure of the question was broad and open-ended, I
strongly advise that those answers be reviewed before providing them to the
chamber in the future.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.