Key Points
A Rebecca White Labor Government will address the public housing maintenance backlog and train more tradespeople by bringing back a new, in-house maintenance workforce.
Labor’s public housing workforce will carry out an additional $10 million of maintenance on public and social housing each year, on top of current contracted works.
This will help to bring more than 200 currently uninhabitable public houses back into the system, and lift the standard of public housing across Tasmania.
Labor’s public housing workforce will:
- Repair more than 200 uninhabitable public housing properties
- Provide new training pathways for more young Tasmanians in construction
- Have fixed ratios for apprentices, women and older workers
- Provide a dedicated workforce focused on improving the housing crisis.
Why we need it
After 10 years of the Liberals, more than 200 publicly-owned houses are sitting empty because the Liberals haven’t maintained them.
“A Labor Government will bring back a public and social housing maintenance workforce”
This lack of action is unforgivable when we have Tasmanian families sleeping rough, housing has never been less affordable and waitlists for social housing have more than doubled.
Too many public housing tenants are living in properties with serious, unaddressed issues like black mould.
If the Liberals haven’t fixed the housing crisis in 10 years, they never will.
Only a Labor Government will grow the Tasmanian construction industry, fix up public housing for people who need it most, and provide employment and training opportunities for the future.
The details
Labor will establish a public housing workforce to fix up more than 200 uninhabitable homes, lift the standard of public housing, and provide more training and job opportunities to Tasmanians.
It will have an annual budget of $10 million, which will be in addition to the existing maintenance work performed by contractors.
Over the next five years, we estimate it could help to train up to 200 new apprentices, and will help to provide more opportunities for women to enter the construction sector.