The economy is a dominant issue in the Election. From now until polling day, Independent Australia will outline some key facts on the economy that put the kybosh on many of the myths, lies and distortions being peddled in the election campaign.
This is the fifth in a series of short articles by leading economist Stephen Koukoulas, which will be published daily up until the Federal Election on Saturday 3 May 2025.
FACT FIVE: NEW DWELLINGS SET TO EXCEED HALF A MILLION NEW APPROVALS UNDER LABOR
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton made a claim that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ‘hasn’t delivered a single additional new home built under [Labor's] failed housing policies’.
This is at odds with the fact from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that shows there have been 481,871 new dwelling approvals between June 2022 (the month after Labor won the 2022 Election) and February 2025 (the latest available data).
Based on current trends, the number of new dwelling approvals since June 2022 will exceed half a million when the April 2025 data is released.
In the last year, there has been a 25.7% increase in new dwelling building approvals and Treasury is forecasting dwelling investment to rise a further 5.5% in 2025-26 and 7.5% in 2026-27.
Don't be fooled — these are the facts.
Other facts in this series:
- #1: In fact, Labor has inflation back under control
- #2: Energy prices are plummeting
- #3: Wage growth on the rise under Labor
- #4: Labor brought down government debt by billions
- #6: Coalition taxing at a record high, not Labor
- #7: Under Labor, Australia is more productive
- #8: Australia among best in the world at beating inflation
- #9: Australia keeping tax down
- #10: Employment rising under Labor
Stephen Koukoulas is one of Australia’s most respected economists, a past chief economist of Citibank and senior economic advisor to an Australian Prime Minister. You can follow Stephen on Twitter/X @TheKouk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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