Australia’s building industry is calling for billions of dollars’ worth of extra stimulus along with reforms across multiple areas as the sector seeks to manage the fallout from COVID-19.

In its pre-budget submission for the Federal Budget in October, Master Builders Australia has called for action on 27 points across five areas.

In its submission, Master Builders says 82,000 jobs have been lost in building and construction since the start of COVID whilst 350,000 building workers are receiving government assistance in the form of either JobKeeper or the HomeBuilder program.

Moreover, Master Builders says COVID has forced it to slash its forward outlook.

Over the four years spanning 2020/21 to 2023/24, Master Builders has slashed its forecast for new housing starts by almost 140,000 or almost 20 percent because of COVID.

In commercial building, meanwhile, it expects the dollar value of work done to fall by 17.2 percent and 6.2 percent over 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively.

Amongst its 27 points of action, Master Builders would like the Commonwealth to:

• Extend the Home Builder program by a further twelve months to allow for high-rise construction to quality for the scheme and expand its scope to include land lease communities and retirement living developments.
• Extend the first home deposit scheme to new builds only from January and allow early access to suppuration in order to purchase a home
• Establish a CommunityBuilder program through which the Commonwealth would provide grants of up to 25 percent to community groups or non-profit organisations to build new facilities or to renovate/expand existing ones up to a value of $5 million.
• Fund small and medium sized projects which can be delivered quickly in areas such as health, community, education, sport/recreation, public space upgrades, combustible cladding rectification, asbestos removal, regional public tourism upgrades and government building refurbishments.
• Fast track civil infrastructure investment
• Provide tax relief and incentives for business
• Support skills by streamlining and simplifying employer incentives for apprentice hiring, fund 10,000 places for building and construction induction courses and establish a Building and Construction Skills Organisation Pilot,
• Improve procurement practices and ease planning restrictions and regulatory requirements
• Appoint a Minister for Housing and Construction.

In its submission, Master Builders says the building sector’s importance should not be understated.

“Residential and commercial building offers one of the highest economic jobs and investment multiplier effects and, combined with civil infrastructure investment, the industry can play a leading role in rebuilding the Australian economy,” Master Builders said.

“We urge further Federal Government stimulus in all facets of the building and construction industry through direct government expenditure, in full or in part, and, government policy change that can facilitate private investment in building and construction.”

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