Media Release
6
April 2010
BER Should Stay
Statement by Mr Wilhelm Harnisch, Chief Executive Officer
The BER remains the right economic strategy and should be allowed to run its course
according Master Builders Australia, the peak body for the building and construction
industry in its Pre Budget Submission.
Mr Wilhelm Harnisch, CEO of Master Builders Australia said, “The Government’s well
targeted BER stimulus has underpinned what would have otherwise been a certain
collapse in commercial building activity across Australia leading to job losses as high as
35,000.”
He said, “Instead the BER has been a crucial
component in
keeping Australia out of
recession
by contributing at least one
per cent to GDP in 2009/10
and has therefore
played a vital role underpinning confidence and employment.
“The stimulus designed to boost the domestically-orientated building industry is a proven
and
successful formula in supporting the economy from the effects of an economic
downturn given the strong flow-on or multiplier effects of the building industry to a number
of other industries including manufacturing.”
“Master Builders’ national economic surveys clearly show that the building and
construction industry overall has managed to stabilise largely due to programs such as the
BER.”
“The BER was the correct policy response
to the GFC and should be allowed to run its
course.”
“The program was appropriately designed to phase down over time but to pull the rug out
from under the commercial building industry with so many sectors
still ‘doing it tough’
would be the wrong policy approach.”
“The impact and consequences of GFC are not over. Australia may have fared better but
there remains considerable global economic uncertainty which sees Australia remain
vulnerable to what can best be described as fragile global economic conditions.
Mr Harnisch said, “Master Builders does not agree with calls for the BER to end early and
certainly not when the economic and employment benefits are demonstrably clear and in
circumstances when the recovery in the building and construction industry and the broader
Australian economy remains tentative.
Contact:
Wilhelm Harnisch, CEO, 0402 039 039
Peter Jones, Chief Economist, 0403 440 838
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