The peak body for the construction industry in WA has echoed calls for a dedicated building and construction visa pathway nationally.
Master Builders Association of WA has echoed its national counterpart by asking the federal government for a dedicated pathway for building and construction workers coming from overseas.
The national branch of the MBA released a report into skilled migrants today, highlighting an anticipated 500,000 worker shortfall in the next few years.
The report said Australia would need to bring in more trades from overseas to have any chance of hitting the housing targets set by the federal government of an additional 1.2 million homes by 2029.
In Western Australia, the government introduced a construction visa subsidy program last year, offering employers up to $10,000 to help bring in skilled workers.
MBAWA executive director Matthew Pollock welcomed that initiative, but said federal government cooperation was key to building the workforce adequately.
“In WA, we need to grow the construction workforce by between 40,000 and 50,000 workers by end of calendar year 2026,” he said.
“Without being able to attract workers from interstate and overseas we’re likely to fall well short of these targets.”
“We strongly support the state government's $10,000 construction visa subsidy program. But its federal government migration policy that is making it too time consuming and too costly for employers to seek skilled construction workers from overseas.”
Mr Pollock pointed out that WA needed to build about 26,000 new homes each year to meet the targets set by the federal government.
“Over the twelve months to March 2024, we commenced just over 14,000 new homes,” he said.
The federal government recently announced its permanent migration program would be set at 185,000 places for 2024-25, including 132,000 skilled workers.
This represents a drop from 137,000 skilled worker places last financial year and 190,000 total migration places.
However, the government increased the planning level for employer sponsored migrants from 36,825 visas in 2023–24 to 44,000 visas for the 2024–25 migration program.
Mr Pollock added that the federal government needed to place more emphasis on the importance of construction workers.
“The last release of their migrant skills in demand lists prioritises yoga instructors over carpenters, bricklayers and construction managers,” he said.
“We won’t fix the housing crisis without the boots on the ground to build houses.”
