Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently held a really informative roundtable discussion for Mackellar people working in the construction industry. The construction industry makes up a large part of the Mackellar economy and is a major employer on the northern beaches of Sydney. We have a very proud history of people learning their skills and trade on the beaches and working locally. Representatives from the building companies large and small, residential and commercial, participated in this roundtable, as did engineers and architects from all across the electorate of Mackellar.

I held the roundtable because I felt it was important to hear from this industry group for a number of reasons. Firstly, with the cost-of-living crisis, recent building supply constraints and leaner margins for builders, many businesses are facing tough times. I wanted to hear directly from local businesses to find out how they were faring. Secondly, a lot of new industrial relations legislation has been introduced over the past couple of years. I was keen for feedback on how businesses were experiencing these changes, including the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission—something I argued in parliament should not be abolished. Thirdly, the construction industry is, of course, critical to alleviating the housing crisis, and we will only achieve our housing goals if we support our construction industry at every level of government. So I wanted to hear directly from them about the barriers they are facing to getting on with the job of building more homes.

The housing crisis is as urgent on the northern beaches of Sydney as it is anywhere across the country. In fact, Mackellar has some of the very most expensive houses and rental costs in the country. As a result, increasingly, Mackellar locals are having to move out of our region because they can no longer afford to live there. As a GP, I experienced this trend firsthand, with many of the young families that I looked after having to move away so they could buy or rent a home they could afford. This often meant that they had to move away from their close family and friends, their networks of support. The housing crisis is fracturing our society.

Additionally, I've heard from schools, hospitals and aged-care homes in my area about how difficult it is for them to attract key workers to our region because, quite simply, these key workers are not able to afford to live on the beaches. I've heard about teachers travelling from the Central Coast to work on the northern beaches of Sydney, commuting hours and hours a day. Quite simply, if we continue on such a trajectory, I don't think it's hyperbole at all to say that it will be increasingly difficult for our community to function. Who will care for our older residents? Who will teach our children? And who will care for us in hospital? Also, recently, a year 12 student who was participating in my school partnership program told me that the dire teacher shortage at her school meant that students were regularly missing lessons and had started to teach themselves.

Under the government's National Housing Accord, it's planned that 1.2 million homes will be built by 2029, but we will not be able to achieve such an ambitious housing goal unless we start looking after our construction industry at every level of government. To support the construction industry, we must start by listening.

So what did I hear at the Mackellar construction industry roundtable? Predominantly, it was about workforce shortages. The clearest message I heard during the roundtable was from the owner of a building company who said, 'Simply put, none of us have enough workers.'

Their experience is backed up by the numbers. According to the Housing Industry Association, the HIA, Australia needs an extra 83,000 tradies to build the 1.2 million homes planned in the National Housing Accord by 2029. New modelling from the HIA estimated that the housing shortage cannot be addressed without an extra 22,000 carpenters, another 17,300 electricians and almost 12,000 plumbers. Thousands more will also need to be trained in other trades, with the nation's building industry workforce needing to surge from 277,000 to 361,000—almost another 100,000—to sustain the construction volumes that are necessary for this boom. Without the uptick, the HIA have warned that there will be cost and timeline blowouts for Aussies building new homes and that the federal government target will be unreachable. They have estimated that Australia currently has 114,000 apprentices in training, slightly below record levels. But this figure would have to double to meet the number of additional tradies needed to address the housing shortage.

So what do we need to do about this? Firstly, we need to attract and accept more skilled workers from overseas. With just 3,644 internationals currently helping build Aussie homes, both the Master Builders Australia and the HIA believe the government will have to roll out incentives to get more skilled workers to come here. Importantly, these workers will need to be prioritised over, not added to, other professions to avoid exacerbating the demand for new homes. The Master Builders Australia published a position paper in July this year, calling for Australia's migration program to better target and prioritise skilled workers for the construction industry. Its recommendations included reforming the visa system to simplify processes, lower costs, speed up processing times and create better pathways to permanency. It included prioritising the processing of visas for workers in construction occupations; removing or reducing the Skilling Australians Fund levy, particularly for small businesses; developing a construction and skills pathway visa, similar to programs in Canada, New Zealand and the UK; providing exemptions to skills assessment requirements for certain international qualifications; and providing coaching for migrants on finding employment in the construction industry.

The second prong in addressing the construction workforce shortage is to urgently train more construction workers here in Australia. To this end, the government's Fee-Free TAFE Skills Agreement, which prioritises the construction industry as a national priority, is very welcome. Under the Fee-Free TAFE Skills Agreement, the Commonwealth government has partnered with states and territories to deliver over $1.5 billion in funding for 500,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational educational and training places across Australia up until 2026.

The 2024-25 budget included an additional $86 million commitment for the states and territories to deliver a further 20,000 fee-free TAFE positions; 5,000 of these are pre-apprenticeship places to boost the supply of the construction industry workforce. As an example, some of these fee-free training positions available include qualifications in civil construction plant operations, electrical fitting, bricklaying and blocklaying, and electrical engineering. These extra fee-free TAFE positions are very much needed and very welcome.

However, there is an added complication. I also heard at the roundtable that it is not only difficult to find and attract new apprentices and workers in the construction industry but also increasingly difficult to retain them. Because of the very problem we are trying to solve—the lack of affordable housing—all too often, young apprentices and employees are leaving the Mackellar electorate for more affordable housing options in other regions. As an apprentice, it's often just too expensive to live on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.

A number of participants in the construction roundtable suggested that construction workers and apprentices needed to be regarded as key workers when it comes to accessing social and affordable housing opportunities and that, of course, the amount of this form of affordable housing needs to be increased. I would like to again thank all the participants in our construction industry roundtable. It was certainly a great opportunity for me to hear from you all and to better understand the obstacles you face.