Gurner ‘sincerely’ regrets unemployment remarks

Property developer Tim Gurner says he 'sincerely' regrets the impact of his now-viral comments about needing to see 'pain in the economy', following intense public backlash. 

The Melbourne-based property developer, best known in Western Australia for his plans to build a 24-storey apartment block at the Chellingworth Motors site in Nedlands, made global headlines for his comments at a property summit earlier this week. 

“At the AFR Property Summit this week I made some remarks about unemployment and productivity in Australia that I deeply regret and were wrong," Mr Gurner said. 

"There are clearly important conversations to have in this environment of high inflation, pricing pressures on housing and rentals due to a lack of supply, and other cost of living issues. My comments were deeply insensitive to employees, tradies and families across Australia who are affected by these cost-of-living pressures and job losses.

"I want to be clear: I do appreciate that when someone loses their job it has a profound impact on them and their families and I sincerely regret that my words did not convey empathy for those in that situation."

His comments about productivity in Australia, to which he said there had been a 'systematic change' in a post-covid dynamic where employees felt their employers were 'lucky to have them', drew the ire of many on social media both domestically and internationally. 

He singled out tradies for 'pulling back on productivity' and that they had been 'paid a lot to do not too much'. 

A representative for Mr Gurner issued a statement to media rooms on Thursday afternoon which expressed the developer's regret for the comments.

He did not issue an explicit apology, however. 

Mr Gurner told the AFR summit this week that unemployment rate needed to jump 40 to 50 per cent. 

"We need to see pain in the economy, we need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around," he said. 

"There's been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them, as opposed to the other way around."