CANBERRA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has flagged a multi-billion dollar building stimulus package to create jobs in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
Morrison on Monday confirmed that the government is working on a package to revive the residential building sector.
He said that the package will likely include grants for homeowners to subsidize renovations and acknowledged that safeguards would have to be put in place to ensure that it supported local tradespeople rather than major contractors.
"We are looking at a bit of drop off in that current home building that's going on. And that's not good for tradies and not good for jobs," Morrison told Nine Entertainment radio.
"We want to make sure that whatever we do in this space... jobs get created locally."
The package is expected to target 380,000 tradespeople who have been affected by the slowdown in the housing sector as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
Forecasts have found that residential construction could fall by 50 percent as a result of a collapse in overseas migration to Australia.
Morrison on Monday also confirmed that he has been in talks with leaders from the entertainment industry about a potential stimulus package.
"One of the challenges is going to be that the entertainment sector will find it difficult to get capital moving again because they've had to draw down on it so significantly and getting started again will be hard," he said. Enditem
