Election 2025: ALP rejects push for foreign tradies amid housing crunch

As a chronic undersupply of workers threatens to exacerbate housing affordability, Labor has rejected industry overtures for a relaxation of migration controls on foreign tradies.

As more young Australians find themselves locked out of the property market, housing has become a key contest during the federal election campaign. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

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Labor’s Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has dismissed calls for foreign tradies to play a greater role in addressing labour shortages in the construction industry, as a chronic undersupply of workers threatens to exacerbate housing affordability woes.

The building sector says an overhaul of migration processes would help accelerate the construction of new homes, assisting Labor to achieve its promise of 1.2 million new homes around the country by 2029.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Ms O’Neil rejected industry overtures for less stringent and more affordable migration controls, saying the number of builders migrating to Australia reflected the current demand for skills.

“The challenge is not necessarily the ease of bringing construction workers in. We have a demand-driven migration system,” Ms O’Neil said during a housing policy debate with ­Coalition counterpart Michael Sukkar. Rather, the government would focus on training Australians if it won the May 3 election, Ms O’Neil said, pointing to Labor’s expansion of heavily subsidised TAFE studies and its pledge to introduce cash incentive payments for those undertaking construction apprenticeships.

“We’re an Australian government and our focus is making sure we train Australians for these fantastic jobs,” she added.

According to BuildSkills Australia, a tripartite council that advises on training and workforce challenges in the construction sector, demand for workers in the building industry is expected to significantly outpace supply in the next decade.

It forecasts the construction sector would have 124,000 workers fewer than was required to meet expected demand by mid-2025, rising to some 192,000 employees in 10 years.

Late last year, the Albanese government revealed it would include housing construction trades on a refreshed skills occupation list, which summarises the jobs Australia needs to alleviate workforce shortages.

Tradespeople earning in excess of $135,000 were excluded from that list, however, marking a major win for trade unions, which pressured Labor to set aside high-paid blue collar jobs for Australian workers, a point seized upon by Mr Sukkar.

“The CFMEU will not allow the Labor Party to make … the sort of changes that would mean we bring in more bricklayers and less yoga instructors,” he said.

“You need to reorient the skills list to bring in more of the skills we need in those trades, unencumbered by the CFMEU, [which] seems to have had a veto right over this government.”

Pressed how altering the skills list aligned with the ­Coalition’s vow to aggressively clamp down on Australia’s net-migration intake, Mr Sukkar again committed to “reorient” the program but provided scant detail on how that would be implemented.

The debate over housing policy comes as fresh construction activity data, released on Wednesday, showed the number of new housing starts slumped 4.4 per cent in the December quarter to 41,911 dwellings.

While the number of homes where construction has commenced has trended higher in recent quarters, that progress has been sporadic, suggesting a significant ramp-up in building activity will be needed to meet Labor’s housing target.