New government initiative cuts red tape for Townsville’s housing construction

Member for Mundingburra Janelle Poole MP and Master Builders Regional Manager Mark Vaughan are confident a new Crisafulli government initiative will help housing for Townsville.

Master Builders Regional Manager Mark Vaughan and Member for Mundingburra Janelle Pool MP. Photo: Supplied

North Queensland is expected to see an acceleration of housing construction after the Crisafulli government moved to slash paperwork and building costs.

The government’s Building Reg Reno initiative will progressively rollout changes to the construction process, including scrapping ‘unnecessary’ financial reports, digitizing paper-based administrative processes, and pausing new project trust accounts under $10 million.

The state government said this will allow smaller contractors to spend more time on-site and less time focusing on paperwork and roadblocks.

Member for Mundingburra Janelle Poole MP said slashing duplicate administrative work will allow Townsville’s construction industry to run more smoothly.

“A lot of that red tape that those small businesses in the building industry are being bogged down by is actually duplication,” Mrs Poole said.

“Removing that duplication – it doesn’t alter any of the other business in relation to the quality of the building but it’s removing the unnecessary financial reporting for about 50,000 small operators.

“Sadly, Queensland has the worst productivity in the housing industry across the country, and that is not a record we should be proud of in any way, shape or form.”

Master Builders Regional Manager Mark Vaughan stressed that the initiative will unlock construction in North Queensland.

“The state government has helped many small construction businesses avoid chaos and potentially going to the wall,” Mr Vaughan said.

“That’s going to help all the builders and trades people in the North Queensland region because that’s going to be able to let them spend more time on site, thus being able to move the building of homes along.”

This initiative follows the establishment of the Productivity Commission which will be in charge of reviewing Queensland’s construction industry to boost productivity in order to catch up with other states.

“Master Builders as an association is really looking forward to the next round of measures being announced as the wheels of the Productivity Commission begin to turn,” Mr Vaughan said.

Immediate relief will be delivered in March with broader reforms being rolled out across the year.

Originally published as New government initiative cuts red tape for Townsville’s housing construction