ScoMo takes huge dump with “tiny homes” push

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Nothing makes my blood boil more than “tiny homes”. Whether it is the buyers or sellers of the sardine cans, acceptance of their existence represents a gigantic failure of the Australian political economy.

Those Millennials that Domain so loves to quote as they gasp out a few words from diaphragms crushed between kitchen cabinet and bed, that they love their tiny home, are the political failures of their generation.

Those establishment champions that see “tiny homes” as the answer to the disenfranchisement of generations from home ownership are straight up psychopaths.

So when I see this I reach for the revolver:

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The Morrison government wants to make tiny homes a bigger deal.

Industry Minister Karen Andrews, a self-described fan of tiny homes, says she wants to see the prefabricated building sector grow by $30 billion over the next five years. The sector currently makes up about three to five per cent of Australia’s $150 billion construction industry, but Ms Andrews says it could grow to 15 per cent by 2025.

The Industry, Science and Technology Minister will announce a study on Sunday which will look at ways to develop the prefabricated building industry.

The study will examine safety issues, regulations around prefab buildings and export opportunities, particularly in the Asia-Pacific. Prefabricated construction involves any part of a building (such as the floor) or a whole building that is made off-site. This includes modular constructions for homes and offices and tiny homes.

The government has set aside $2 million for the initial study and then plans to set up an innovation lab to help manufacturers design prefabricated buildings.

Ms Andrews said there was a “massive opportunity” to boost the building and construction industry and potentially create an estimated 20,000 new jobs.

How have Australian values become some so warped that this makes sense to anybody? In the least populated land mass on earth we have to build literal shoe boxes to house our kids. It is basically proposing to ghettoise entire generations of future Australians as trailor trash.

And for what? To protect the fattened bankers, builders and ScoMo’s Property Council mates of the generations before.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.