Master Builders Queensland calling for more support for small businesses and new apprentices

Queensland’s peak industry body for building and construction is calling for more support for small businesses who are unable to compete with larger government and commercial construction builds.

Master Builders North Queensland Regional Manager Alana Hopkins. Picture: Supplied.

Queensland’s peak industry body for building and construction is calling for more support for small businesses who are unable to compete with larger government and commercial construction builds.

Master Builders Queensland has called on both sides of government for better support of the building industry by removing road blocks and red tape ‘clogging the system’, and to ensure apprenticeships are completed with workers continuing on in the industry.

The group travelled across Queensland to hear from locals on housing concerns, releasing their findings in their 2024 report ‘Home Truths’.

The report showed that from 1500 Queensland voters surveryed nine out of ten said that the government should be doing more to fix the housing crisis.

Master Builders North Queensland Regional Manager Alana Hopkins Picture: Supplied.

North Queensland regional manager Alana Hopkins said a solution to get housing back on track is to ensure the Best Practice Industry Conditions were less rigid.

“BPICs must be applied in a way that is flexible, enabling greater productivity on construction sites without compromising worker safety or building quality,” she said.

“We maintain that the conditions are making large unit developments and the central government infrastructure projects too expensive to build, owing to reduced productivity on site.

“This is not about cutting corners or undermining worker conditions, including pay, we simply need more flexibility to drive costs down and to ensure projects go ahead.”

Master Builders Queensland stated in their report that builders have suffered an ‘avalanche of regulatory changes over the past few years’ including challenging market conditions, Covid and other international events.

Another recommendation from the group is to roll back the changes to the National Construction Code 2022, in particular the new accessibility ad energy efficiency requirements.

“While inclusivity and sustainability are important to our communities, these changes are driving up the cost of new housing without a sufficient benefit,” the report said.

Ms Hopkins said it was great to see the Queensland government’s Big Build spending a lot of commercial money in Townsville and the North Queensland region, but is concerned what it means for smaller businesses.

“What we are finding though is that a lot of the residential builders and the mum and dad tradies are going to that work because that is where the money is, ”she said.

”Some of them are offering six figure salaries, nine day fortnight, six weeks annual leave you know, I’ve got some traders coming to me saying, ‘I’m just going to go and do this because I can coach my son’s soccer team on the weekend, it’s given me flexibility, I can save some money, take the kids to Disneyland and set up the family’. It’s great that this money has been spent commercially, but it’s taking the residential tradies out of building homes.”

Because of this Ms Hopkins said it makes it harder to renovate a kitchen or build a new home due to a lack of workers and the costs of materials.

“Small mum and dad businesses can’t compete with mining jobs, they can’t compete with commercial construction, and then we find that they’ve got to pay higher wages to attract those people to stay with them, ”she said.

“So then the cost of building a house goes up, because the builder can’t absorb that cost and it’s got to be passed on to the consumer. Since Covid we’ve seen a 40 plus per cent rise in building a home. That’s only going to keep going up not just the cost of materials, but now the cost of labour because they can’t just compete with mining and commercial business.”

Originally published as Master Builders Queensland calling for more support for small businesses and new apprentices