Construction stimulus 'doesn't make sense': Grattan
Services sectors such as higher education, childcare and mental health services “are crying out” for extra Government support, according to the Grattan Institute, while the construction sector is already running record numbers of projects.
Australian unemployment peaked at 7.5% in July but had since fallen to 6.8% in September, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In this week’s Budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced it would expand its 10-year infrastructure pipeline to create more jobs. This would involve investing $14 billion in new and accelerated projects to support a further 40,000 jobs.
“We know that building more infrastructure now means more jobs now,” the Treasurer said.
But Danielle Wood, chief executive of the Grattan Institute, said there were multiple sectors other than construction which were “crying out” for support from the Government.
“It is not clear if construction needs the extra jobs. [Construction activity] did come down during lockdown but now that the restrictions have come off, we are already running more projects than ever and ramping that up doesn’t make sense,” she said.
“The Government could do more to help the services industry and create more jobs. Mental health services makes a lot of sense given COVID-19, tutoring for disadvantaged students, childcare and aged care are crying out for greater investment. Childcare, in particular, is an obvious place where we need to invest more.
“Higher education has also suffered in the pandemic fall-out, it is not a sector where the Government has provided much support and there have been a lot of job losses particularly in the casual sector.”
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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