Australia’s biggest housebuilder has warned the government not to rely on high immigration to fix the economy as a string of construction companies collapse.
A quarter of failing businesses are now in the construction sector, despite Australia suffering a housing affordability and rental crisis during a population boom.
Metricon chief executive Brad Duggan said training more young people, and especially women, to become traders rather than encouraging them to go to university was a better approach than importing labour.
“We all have a responsibility to redefine what success is for our children because college is not the only path to a successful life and that is the structural change we are talking about,” he said. News Corp Australia at a Housing Industry Association forum in Brisbane this week about encouraging women to go into construction.
Australia’s biggest housebuilder has warned the government not to rely on high immigration as a string of construction companies collapse.
Metricon chief executive Brad Duggan said training more young people, and especially women, to become traders rather than encouraging them to go to university was a better approach than importing labour.
A record net 548,800 migrants moved to Australia in the year to September, with the population growing at the fastest rate since 1952.
Australia’s capital cities now have rental vacancy rates of less than one per cent.
But despite growing demand for housing, more than a quarter of companies filing for insolvency are in the construction sector, as higher construction costs drive down companies that had relied on fixed-price contracts.
Between July and March, 2,142 construction companies went into receivership, representing 27.7 per cent of the 7,742 companies that filed for insolvency, data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission showed.
If that trend continues, Australia is on track to see 10,000 businesses fail for the first time since 2012-13.
Insolvencies in the first nine months of 2023-24 were 36.2 per cent higher than in the corresponding months of 2022-23.
Duggan said labor shortages were adding to problems in the construction sector, which has struggled with higher material costs for several years.
“A lot of structural changes need to be made to achieve the goals and trying to get more breadth and capacity in the workforce is a critical component of that,” he said.
‘These skills do not develop overnight. These people are professionals and it takes them a long time to reach the level required to deliver a quality home.’
Very few women are becoming professionals: Only 287 women worked as carpenters in the 2020-21 fiscal year, compared to 53,244 men.
Duggan said labor shortages were adding to problems in the construction sector, which has struggled with higher material costs for several years.
Very few women are becoming professionals: Only 287 women worked as carpenters in the 2020-21 fiscal year, compared to 53,244 men. They made up just 0.5 percent of the country’s 53,531 carpenters, according to tax office data.
They made up just 0.5 percent of the country’s 53,531 carpenters, tax office data showed.
Metricon and the Housing Industry Association have launched a 12-week paid pre-apprenticeship program in the construction industry to train 10 Queensland women.
“Encouraging women to join our industry is essential to its growth and sustainability,” Mr Duggan said.
“We understand the importance of encouraging women to join the construction industry.”