The Master Builders Association of WA has established a Construction Council to deal with issues affecting the building industry’s commercial sector
The Master Builders Association of WA has established a Construction Council to deal with issues affecting the building industry’s commercial sector.
The new council will focus on major issues affecting the sector with industrial relations reforms, trade shortages and emerging safety issues high on the agenda, as well as contractual and tendering issues.
MBA director Michael McLean said the issue of industrial relations reform was unique to the non-residential sector. The Federal Government’s industrial relations reform agenda highlighted the need to have a commercial council, he said.
The council is comprised of businessmen from a variety of small, medium and large non-residential building companies who had an interest in shaping policy directions for the betterment of the building industry as a whole.
“The issues facing the residential sector and the commercial sector are quite different and the solutions are also quite different, and now we will have a dedicated group looking at these issues,” Mr McLean said.
“Rather than deal with the two together, we thought it was better to separate them.
“The council will give the MBA and the industry strong direction and policy.
“There are huge challenges facing the building sector and it is great to get this group together; their track records demonstrate their expertise and ability to rise to the occasion.”
Mr McLean said the inclusion of a commercial council in the MBA was an important part of expansions for the association allowing it to better serve its members.
He estimated that 25 per cent of construction in the state was commercial, 50 per cent residential and another 25 percent civil engineering and resource based.
The new council will meet for the first time on July 28, and members will be asked to sit by invitation only.
The council is starting with 16 members, and Mr McLean said it would probably expand to include 24 people.
“Often there is not a right or wrong solution for issues that come up, but it is the case of deciding what is best for industry, which this council will have the capacity to do,” Mr McLean told WA Business News.
