Builders call for dedicated building and construction visa pathway

Master Builders Australia is calling for the establishment of a new dedicated building and construction visa pathway to help address the housing crisis and build 1.2 million new homes.

Master Bulders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn.

Master Builders Australia is calling on the Albanese government to bring in more skilled migrants for the construction sector to ­secure the extra 500,000 people needed to achieve Labor’s target of building 1.2 million new homes.

The MBA will release its ­migration blueprint for the construction sector on Thursday and will urge the government to adopt a simpler visa system with lower costs and faster processing times.

It is calling on Anthony Albanese to establish a dedicated building and construction visa program to prioritise workers in occupations suffering from labour shortages. The MBA says it is the “only way Australia will meet its building and infrastructure targets and boost its workforce”.

MBA chief executive Denita Wawn said that skilled migrants were critical to “building the homes, infrastructure, schools and hospitals communities are crying out for”.

“Australia faces a significant housing crisis with an undersupply of homes and increasing demand for owner-occupiers, renters and social and crisis accommodation,” she said.

Warning that the nation’s migration system was broken, the MBA’s 48-page report argued that a construction industry-specific visa path would make it more efficient and cost-effective for migrants with trade skills to come to Australia and get out on the tools.

It warned “tinkering around the edges of a severely broken migration system can only go so far”, and called for substantial reform.

The peak builders’ lobby group also said the government should ensure all trade and trade-related occupations were included in the “core skills path” providing access to the proposed four-year Skills in Demand visa.

This path is open to applicants whose profession is included on the new “core skills occupation list”, with the MBA saying that migrants skilled in building and construction must be included.

It said English language standards for skills assessments should be reduced to 4.5 or 5.0 for migrant workers in non-licensed trades, and is asking the government to reduce the need for skills assessments for migrants coming in from countries with comparable qualification and training frameworks.

Ms Wawn said it was clear that the nation’s ability to “train more apprentices domestically cannot keep up with demand”.

“Skilled migrants who are qualified and ready to go will help plug the gap in the short term,” she said. “The workforce must be supported to grow in line with demand and be more productive.”

The Reserve Bank’s August statement on monetary policy noted that home building was expected to slow further due to rising construction costs and ongoing ­labour shortages.

“Labour shortages for certain trades, particularly finishing trades for higher-density construction, are contributing to new dwelling cost inflation and limiting progress in reducing the backlog of work to be done,” it said.

In addition to a construction-specific visa program, the MBA’s report noted that building and construction was the largest employer of apprentices in Australia, but the number of apprentices was decreasing.

There were 116,560 apprentices in training in this industry at the end of December 2023 – representing 34 per cent of all apprentices – but this was down on the 118,615 apprentices in the sector a year earlier.

“Until the number of people completing building and construction apprenticeships increases significantly, the industry must look to skilled migrants as a valuable and important source of workers to fill short- and medium-term needs,” the report found.