Waiting to train new builders will take too long as WA faces a housing ‘traffic jam’ of rising unaffordability and infrastructure projects.
And the Housing Industry Association (HIA) says bringing skilled builders from overseas needs to be treated separately to broader political debate about migration.
It points out that housing affordability and major infrastructure projects like defence and hospital facilities, are driving demand for workers who don’t require training.
The association’s Western Australia executive director, Michael McGowan, says that building more homes means skilled builders are needed and that waiting to train locals cannot wait.
“If we are serious about housing affordability, the first thing we need to talk about is workforce,” he says.
“There is no pathway to building more homes, more hospitals, more defence infrastructure or more manufacturing facilities if we don’t have enough skilled workers on the tools.”
The HIA says more than 83,000 skilled trades workers are needed when it takes years for apprentices to qualify.
WAITING ‘NOT AN OPTION’
“The industry is committed to training the next generation but the homes Western Australians need today cannot wait four or five years,” McGowan says.
“Skilled migration is not a substitute for local training. It is an essential complement to it.”
McGowan says a skilled worker who arrives in Australia needs a home but 300 carpenters can build 500 homes a year.
“Too often migration is discussed only in terms of demand but skilled construction workers increase supply. They are part of the solution to the housing crisis,” he says.
He warns that the flow of skilled workers from overseas has slowed a great down despite persistent shortages in trades like carpenters, bricklayers, roofers and tilers.
“Construction workers should be at the front of the skilled migration queue, not the back,” McGowan says.
“If governments want more homes, better housing affordability and the successful delivery of major projects then skilled construction migration must be recognised as a strategic priority.
“Before we ask how we’re going to build the next generation of homes, hospitals and economic infrastructure, we need to ask who is going to build them,” McGowan says.
