Westpac CEO Calls Government Housing Efforts a Failure
Westpac CEO Anthony Miller testified that government efforts to boost home building have failed as lending for construction projects dropped 30 percent.
Westpac executives testified before a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday, characterizing the Australian Labor government's initiatives to increase home building as a failure. Anthony Miller, Chief Executive of Westpac, reported a 30 percent decline in lending for housing construction projects over the last 18 months. He attributed this drop to sluggish approvals and cost pressures rather than the government's decision to abolish capital gains tax discounts and negative gearing.
Miller argued that current economic conditions are directing investment toward high-end, expensive housing rather than the affordable options the market requires. He stated that providing more resources for the demand side of the market would not solve the underlying problem.
The inquiry also examined the impact of artificial intelligence on employment and offshoring within the banking sector. While ANZ recently cut 3,500 workers, Chief Executive Nuno Matos testified that AI was not responsible for those losses, though he could not guarantee future job security. Miller added that Westpac is not focused on replacing humans with agentic capability, noting that the technology's transformative potential still has a long way to go.
