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Facing a dire skills shortage, the construction industry is asking the government to establish a dedicated migration pathway.
Master Builders issued the call in a new report titled, Future of the Workforce: Skilled Migrants in Building and Construction, which detailed the clear difference in the number of workers needed to increase Australia’s home building capacity and the current workforce.
Master Builders CEO Denita Wawn explained: “The industry needs an extra 500,000 extra people into our sector over the next few years if we are going to build those 1.2 million homes and supporting infrastructure under the Housing Accord.”
“It’s clear our ability to train more apprentices domestically cannot keep up with demand. Skilled migrants who are qualified and ready to go will help relieve some of the workforce pressures,” Wawn said.
The body has described the current migration framework to bring in skilled migrants as “broken”, with Australia lacking a dedicated construction visa pathway, such as has been implemented in countries like Canada, the UK and New Zealand.
Wawn believes that migration is the only way the nation will be able to meet its building and infrastructure targets.
“We need the visa and skills recognition process to be simpler, more cost-effective and quicker, so more suitably skilled migrants can join the building and construction industry,” she said.
In addition to establishing an avenue for construction workers to gain employment in the country, Master Builders is also advocating for the government to ensure all trade and trade-related occupations are included in the Core Skills Pathway of the Skills in Demand visa.
For migrants coming from countries with comparable qualification and training frameworks, Master Builders is requesting that the need for skills assessment be reduced.
The body is calling for the licensing frameworks involving construction to be streamlined insofar as possible to “enable workforce movement and allow for nationally accredited gap training for all licensed trades”.
“Australia faces a significant housing crisis with an undersupply of homes and increasing demand for owner-occupiers, renters and social and crisis accommodation,” Wawn said.
“Skilled migrants represent a vital part of the building and construction industry and are key to building the homes, infrastructure, schools and hospitals communities are crying out for,” she added.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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