
Home truths on housing target in leaked Treasury advice
Independent advice from the Treasury department, which was unintentionally sent to the ABC, reportedly contained subheadings which said the federal government's promise to build 1.2 million homes by 2029 "will not be met" and called for "additional revenue and spending reductions" to achieve a sustainable budget.
Though he acknowledged Treasury's advice had been sent "in error", Treasurer Jim Chalmers said such incidents could happen from time to time.
"I'm pretty relaxed about it to be honest," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
"Treasury advises governments of both political persuasions - that advice can't be always adequately captured in the subheadings."
A 2025 report from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council - another independent government advice body - in May warned Labor would fall short of its goal by about 300,000 dwellings.
It followed a report in March commissioned by the Property Council of Australia showing the government needed to build another 462,000 homes to meet its 2029 target.
Asked if the government regretted putting out a housing target, Dr Chalmers said his government needed to be ambitious.
"We'd rather have a big, ambitious, difficult target and work around the clock to meet it ... than to continue the approach of our predecessors, which was to build too few homes," he said.
The government has also attempted to address its bottom line by reining in spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and proposing an increased tax on super balances above $3 million.
Dr Chalmers has pledged to strengthen Australia's economy ahead of a trip to South Africa, where he will meet with his counterparts from other G20 countries as they deal with "extreme global economic uncertainty".
Economic ties with countries like Indonesia, Japan, the UK and Germany could be strengthened as leaders discuss capital flows, supply chains, critical minerals and issues within their own communities.
But domestically, one of the key focuses of Labor's second-term economic agenda will be to boost productivity.
The agenda of an economic reform roundtable, to be held in August, has been finalised with Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock set to kick off day one, Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood to lead day two and Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson to head day three.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley claimed the government was "ignoring some of the very levers that matter most" in the productivity puzzle.
While Dr Chalmers acknowledged he could not invite every industry, he said there would be many opportunities for people to contribute.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese says Taiwan ‘status quo' remains after questions on Chinese media report
'You're trying to quote a Chinese readout that I haven't seen,' Albanese said at a press conference on Wednesday in response to a question about his reported position. 'What we do is continue to support a one-China policy. We support the status quo. By definition. We don't support any unilateral action on Taiwan.' The status quo, in Australia's view, is that Taiwan should not declare independence unilaterally and China should not retake the island without negotiations. Later on Wednesday, Albanese travelled to Chengdu, a major city in Western China, that has a history of being more liberal than other parts of the country. There the prime minister met with local party officials and held a tennis event. On Thursday, Albanese will attend a medical technology industry lunch with dignitaries, including Australian Nobel laureate Professor Barry Marshall, and then tour a factory from Australian hearing implant company Cochlear. China is the world's largest manufacturer of high-tech devices, but research and technology ties between the country and the West have been strained by allegations of intellectual property theft and strategic tensions. In a speech to the lunch, Albanese will recall Bob Hawke's visit to Chengdu in 1986 when the Labor leader went to an Australian-owned circuit board factory. He will say that technology remains core to Australia's trade partnership with China and that both nations can improve by investing in research and manufacturing. 'This also depends on continuing to break down barriers by supporting the free and fair trade that enables Australian medtech companies to access the market here in China,' Albanese will say. While Albanese was touring Beijing this week, Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, was also in the city. Asked whether Australia's strategy of engaging with China through trade despite security issues was repeating Europe's approach before Russia invaded Ukraine, Albanese said the situations were different. 'I don't think you can translate one thing across some other part of the world of which Australia is not a participant,' Albanese said. He argued that Australia's ties with China went beyond trade to dialogue at summits and personal links. Loading Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin previously declared a 'no-limits' partnership between the nations, and China has been accused of assisting Russia's war effort in Ukraine. Chinese direct investment in Australia has slowed in recent years due to national security concerns about overseas influence in critical industries such as infrastructure and resources. China has been pushing to lower the barriers to entry mandated by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, which can block attempts at investment or reverse them, such as an order last year to push China-linked investors out of a critical minerals company in Western Australia. After the pair inspected Chinese troops dressed in immaculate dress uniforms, Li told a business roundtable attended by Albanese on Tuesday night that China was seeking fairness. Loading 'I trust that Australia will also treat Chinese enterprises fairly and also properly resolve the issues [of] market access and review,' he said. According to figures from consultancy KPMG and the University of Sydney, Chinese investment in Australia increased from $US613 million in 2023 to $US862 million in 2024. That is still significantly lower than 2008, when it reached $US16.2 billion, or even as recently as 2017, when it was $US10 billion. Against a backdrop of US President Donald Trump's mercurial tariff policies, Li positioned China as a force of stability in an unstable world. 'We hope that you will embrace openness and co-operation, no matter how the world changes,' Li said. 'The development of all countries is faced with new challenges. Given such circumstances, China and Australia, as important trade partners, should strengthen dialogue and co-operation.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers was noncommittal when asked last week about China's wish to speed up foreign investment reviews.

Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Australians robbed of half a million dollars each: Henry
Working Australians had been robbed $500,000 since the turn of the century by the failure of the country to find ways to get businesses and people to work smarter, the former head of the federal Treasury has revealed, saying the situation will get worse without substantial reforms. Before the federal government's productivity roundtable next month, Ken Henry, who headed a review into the tax system under the Rudd government and was pivotal to the introduction of the GST under the Howard government, said the nation's children were being short-changed by a current generation afraid to make hard decisions. Henry, the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, used an address to the National Press Club to argue the nation's poor productivity performance would become worse if environmental laws were not overhauled to both reduce red tape and protect nature. As Treasury secretary, he oversaw the first intergenerational report, released by then-treasurer Peter Costello, in 2002. After a sharp lift in productivity through the 1990s, the report assumed it could continue to grow over the next 40 years at around 1.75 per cent annually. Instead, productivity has slowed both here and around the world. In Australia, it has averaged less than 1 per cent since the turn of the century and has been negative over the past two years. Henry said as wages usually grew in line with productivity, the drop in productivity over the past 23 years had resulted in smaller pay packets for ordinary workers. 'The average full-time Australian worker has been robbed of about $500,000 over the past 25 years because of our failure,' he said. 'When I hear people say, we cannot do this to enhance productivity, cannot do that because it will hurt somebody, I think – give me a break. Who are we talking about here?'


West Australian
4 hours ago
- West Australian
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lands in China's medical capital Chengdu, Port Darwin stance hangs in the air
Anthony Albanese will top his China charm offensive on Thursday with panda diplomacy and spruiking Australia's prowess in the Medical Technology sector after landing in the Sichuan capital Chengdu. Mr Albanese will tour a Cochlear manufacturing and research facility to showcase 'Australian ingenuity, inventiveness and know-how' as he enters the final leg of a six-day tour to turbocharge Australia's economic ties with its largest trading partner. China is one of Cochlear's top five markets, having helped treat 50,000 Chinese patients with hearing loss, and the Sydney-based company launched its Chengdu production facility and international hearing research, innovation and service centre in 2021. Australia is the world's second largest producer of Medtech patents, and the third largest medical device market in the Indo-Pacific, with more than 850 firms and a total market value exceeding $10.5 billion. 'Australian and Chinese researchers, hospitals and universities are driving remarkable progress in every field of medical technology,' Mr Albanese will tell a lunch reception of top healthcare and biomedical tech leaders, including Nobel Laureate Prof Barry Marshall, whose research has revolutionised the treatment of stomach ulcers. Mr Albanese is the first Prime Minister to visit Chengdu since Bob Hawke in 1986, in a three-city tour that has been warmly received by a Chinese government pushing for closer trade ties with Australia as a buffer against the disruption of US trade tariffs. However, clouds remain on the horizon. Earlier on Wednesday, the Prime Minister was forced to dismiss suggestions Australian business could be iced out of the Chinese market over the Government's decision to put the strategic port of Darwin back into Australia's hands. Chinese objections to Labor's election promise to overturn the awarding of a 99-year lease of the port to the Beijing-owned Landbridge group have loomed over Mr Albanese's red carpet reception this week, with state media repeatedly highlighting the controversy. Mr Albanese on Wednesday confirmed that the sale of the port had not been raised directly with him in talks with Premier Li Qiang or Chinese President Xi Jinping, who offered a rare lunch invitation to the Prime Minister and fiancee Jodie Haydon. Mr Li was effusive about the potential for stronger trade ties at a roundtable of Chinese and Australian business leaders in the imposing Great Hall of the People on Tuesday but alluded to the point of contention by urging Australia to create a 'non-discriminatory business environment.' 'We hope that the Australian side will treat Chinese enterprises visiting Australia fairly and properly solve the problems encountered by enterprises in market access, investment review, and other aspects,' Mr Li said. The Global Times, a state-run media outlet, was more direct. 'At present, there are specific issues between China and Australia that need to be discussed, such as the lease of Darwin Port and the expansion of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement,' it said. 'There are also practical obstacles, especially the tendencies toward 'pan-politicisation' and 'pan-securitisation,' as well as interference from third parties,' it continued in an otherwise glowing account of Mr Albanese's trip so far. Asked during a press conference on the Great Wall of China on Wednesday if he was prepared for Australia to be put back into the deep freeze on the issue, Mr Albanese responded with a straight, 'the answer is no'. The Prime Minister's trip has been centred on repairing business and trade ties after a diplomatic spat under the Morrison government triggered a series of damaging import bans on key commodities, which have since been lifted. Labor has stressed, however, that it will not budge over the cancelling of the Landbridge lease for national security reasons. Mr Albanese told reporters that this was a longheld position 'shouldn't come as any surprise.' However, Chinese officials have protested against changes made to the Foreign Investment Review Board under the previous Government after the port lease was awarded to a Chinese-state owned operator by the Northern Territory authorities. The Government has rejected Beijing's suggestions that Chinese companies are unfairly targeted by rules requiring greater scrutiny in sensitive investment areas. Ahead of Mr Albanese's trip, the Government indicated it would not be prepared to ease restrictions or to accede to Chinese requests for greater cooperation on artificial intelligence capabilities. 'We have a case by case issue when it comes to foreign investment,' said Mr Albanese. 'It is viewed not on the basis of any one country, but on the basis of an objective assessment of our national interest.' He added, 'One of the things that I emphasise - I say the same thing in Beijing as I say in Bankstown - which is that the Australian Government supports free and fair trade. It's in the interests of the world to have free and fair trade, and we'll continue to engage that way.' The Prime Minister also revealed Communist Party Chairman Zhao Leji had agreed to an invitation to lead a National People's Congress delegation to Australia. 'It is very clear that it is in our national interest for us to have a positive relationship with China, where there are differences, to talk about them, but not be defined by them,' he said. Later on Wednesday afternnon, the Prime Minister donned his Akubra hat and to battle stifling humidity at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre, where he oversaw an announcement that the city will host the Asia-Pacific Wild Card Playoffs for the 2026 Australian Open. There was 'no better way' to improve people to people and cultural links between Australia and China than the iconic Australian Open, Mr Albanese told an audience including Australian Open Champion John Fitzgerald, Tennis Australia's Vicki Reid, Governor Shi Xiaolin and rows of young tennis players.