NEW HOME SALES in the three months to February were 46.8 percent lower than at the same time the previous year.

That is the advice of Housing Industry Association of Australia (HIA) chief economist, Tim Reardon, based on the latest HIA New Home Sales report – a monthly survey of the largest volume home builders in the five largest states – as a leading indicator of future detached home construction.

“Sales in the month of February rose by 14.3 percent compared with the previous month but remain exceptionally low,” Mr Reardon said.

“Sales of new homes stalled late in 2022 as the adverse impact of the RBA’s rate increases continue to erode market confidence.

“When the cash rate started to rise in May 2022 there was a very large pool of work to commence construction. This pool of work yet to commence is shrinking quickly as new sales remain very low and the number of new projects entering the pipeline falls," he said.

“Tighter access to finance and a higher cash rate is seeing many new home buyers withdraw from the market. Customers that received approval to build a new home early in 2022 are cancelling these projects as the cost-of-living bites and banks withdraw financing.

“Without an improvement in access to finance, or a lowering of rates, the number of new homes commencing construction will slow later this year.

“The RBA isn’t going to return the economy to stability by putting the building industry through boom-and-bust cycles,” Mr Reardon said.

For the three months to February 2023, compared with the same period the previous year, new home sales in New South Wales were down by 76.6 percent, followed by Queensland (-51.2 percent), Victoria (-42.3 percent), Western Australia (-14.8 percent) and South Australia (-6.0 percent).

www.hia.com.au

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FRUSTRATED paramedics in New South Wales are launching their ‘return to the road’ pledge, bucking health department orders to stay in clogged hospitals with non-urgent patients, and instead vowing get back on the road to deal with life-threatening emergencies.

Under current health department policies, paramedics can get stuck in bed blocked hospitals for hours on end accompanying patients suffering relatively minor conditions such as sunburn because the hospital is too overwhelmed to process a formal handover.

This bed block prevents the paramedic attending to fresh, life threatening emergencies, according to the Health Services Union (HSU).

HSU NSW Secretary, Gerard Hayes said from early Tuesday, paramedics will take matters into their own hands. If they judge the condition of a patient aged 18-85 to be stable, they will return to the road.

Mr Hayes said the paramedic workforce was taking the action to promote public health.

“It’s astounding we have to do this, but we have no other option,” Mr Hayes said.

“Paramedics are at their wits’ end. They are forced to hang around emergency departments with patients who have constipation, stubbed toes or sunburn all because there simply isn’t enough staff to process a handover. We are sacrificing crucial minutes where we could be responding to a potential cardiac arrest.

“At the heart of this problem is the collapse in hospital staffing. There are 12,000 vacancies across the hospital system because people with skills and experience simply can’t afford to live in NSW and work in health," he said.

"This is the consequence of a decade of wage suppression.

"We have tried every which way to propose reform options that would reduce bed block. Sadly we have hit a brick wall.

“HSU paramedics have designed this action carefully and responsibly so that it enhances patient wellbeing."

The action begins from the first shift on Tuesday morning in NSW.

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THE Productivity Commission’s latest report five-year Productivity Inquiry: Advancing Prosperity maps out what’s required to create a tertiary education system that is student centric, more cohesive and better positioned to address workforce shortages.  That’s the view of the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA), the peak body representing independent providers in the skills training, higher education, and international education sectors.

“The key to addressing workforce shortages and supporting students can be found through creating an integrated tertiary education system in which the skills training and higher education systems operate as one, yet retain their separate strengths and identities.  Many of the recommendations in the Productivity Commission report seek that also,” ITECA chief executive Troy Williams said.

It is significant that the Productivity Commission has taken up many of the recommendations from ITECA concerning student loan programs.

“One of the most egregious aspects of today’s tertiary education system is that many students pay a 20 percent student loan tax simply for choosing to study with an independent provider.  It is welcome news that the Productivity Commission has made recommendations to end this discrimination,” Mr Williams said.

Another recommendation taken up by the Productivity Commission is a proposal to consolidate the Australian Government’s various online platforms to guide student decision-making.

“The recommendation that the Australian Government’s microcredential information platform be extended to skills training courses and other well-recognised domestic course offerings is well over due.  It corrects a hitherto lost opportunity to help students make informed decision making,” Mr Williams said.

For Australia’s skills training system, one of the more significant recommendations from the Productivity Commission was that the Australian Government fund extra training and development programs for trainers and assessors so they can adequately perform independent and proficiency-based assessment.

“If the Australian Government made the recommended commitment to support the development of the skills training workforce, the ability of ITECA members to support the reskilling and upskilling of the Australian workforce would be significantly enhanced.  That’s just what Australia needs at this crucial economic juncture,” Mr Williams said.

Given the significance of the Productivity Commission’s report, ITECA will actively lobby the Australian Government for the adoption of key recommendations.

“The Commission’s report shows what a student centric tertiary education system looks like, one that would be well equipped to help Australia address its skills shortages,” Mr Williams said.

According to data referenced in the ITECA State Of The Sector Report, independent providers support more than 97 percent of the 4.3 million students in skills training and around 10 percent of the 1.6 million students in a higher education awards program.

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THE Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit will hold a public hearing on Friday, March 17, for its inquiry into Commonwealth grants administration.

The hearing will focus on equity, decision-making and matters relating to the allocation of funding under three programs: Urban Congestion Fund, Regional Growth Fund and the Modern Manufacturing Initiative.

Committee Chair, Julian Hill MP, noted that these three programs have had significant funding commitments and expenditure by the Australian Government, making them worthy of further scrutiny.

“In the last public hearing held on 3 March, the committee examined a number of grants programs that had been subject to audits by the Australian National Audit Office,” Mr Hill said. “In the upcoming session, we are keen to see whether the issues identified by the Auditor-General in the audit reports are recurring in these other programs.

“The committee will also hold two roundtables in the afternoon, on integrity in Commonwealth grants administration and on grant applicant experiences.”

Details for the public hearings are:

Friday 17 March 2023
Time: 9am – 3.15pm
Venue: Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra
Inquiry into Commonwealth Grants Administration

Further information about the inquiry is available on the Committee website.

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