“Decade-long shortfall of tradies tipped to undermine nation’s housing push”
(c) The Sydney Morning Herald – Olivia Ireland is a workplace relations and federal breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based at Parliament House in Canberra.
“The supply of tradespeople, architects and other building professionals will fail to meet projected demand well into the 2030s, a major building report has found.”
“Build Skills Australia – a jobs and skills council established by Labor to address workforce planning and training needs – has released its workforce plan, which warns that the government’s ambitious housing target of 1.2 million new homes over five years will face supply constraints.”
“The report estimates that next year’s building-sector labour demand will be more than 2 million workers, but there will be supply shortfall of almost 200,000.
By 2030, the report predicts, the sector will need 2.44 million workers to satisfy demand, but fall short by 370,000 workers. By 2035, the gap will still be significant, at 267,000 workers.”
“Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the construction industry was built on the success of migration and called on the government to consider a specific visa for tradespeople.
“Our view is that, like New Zealand, Canada and the UK, we do need a specific tradie visa that recognises that we have a significant shortage [and] has ways of recognising their qualifications,” she said.
“It’s an international marketplace where we need to be competitive, and currently we’re not.”
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar backed Wawn’s view, arguing it was “absurd” that all skilled tradespeople weren’t included in the skills-in-demand visa.”
