Tradies say federal budget will hurt an already strained construction industry
Updated . First published at
Tradies fear housing-related tax reforms unveiled in this week's federal budget will hinder an already-struggling construction industry.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers pushed his sweeping changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax (CST) discount as equivalent to reversing about decade of decline in home ownership in Australia.
However Master Builders Association, the peak body representing the building and construction industries, has argued the changes could stifle the nation's ability to meet housing targets.
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Tradies fear housing-related tax reforms unveiled in this week's federal budget will hinder an already-struggling construction industry. Louie Douvis
The association's national director of policy and legal Melissa Byrne said the industry was already struggling with rising costs for building products.
"I think the short answer is it's going to hurt the housing industry," Byrne told the ABC today.
"The budget papers admit a reduction in the supply of new homes as a result of these changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing, and it is absolutely not what we need right now.
"In the last five years, we've seen about a 50 per cent increase in the cost of building so that's clearly not having the impact we want.
"In terms of the government's ambitious 1.2 million homes target, we're not going in the right direction at the moment."
Byrne said the industry also faced workforce shortages, particularly in regional areas.
"Across the entire industry, we're short across all trades," she said.
"What we didn't see in this federal budget was some specific support for apprenticeships.
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The construction industry is already struggling with rising costs for building products. AAP
Byrne said there were workplace shortages industry-wide and improvements in skilled migration could offer a solution.
"As you can appreciate, the apprenticeship pipeline domestically takes some time to translate into actual people on the ground," she said.
"So, in the meantime, to bridge that gap, we say that skilled migration is a really important piece of that puzzle as well."
The Master Builders Association did however welcome the opportunity to work with both sides of government on any reforms to the National Construction Code.
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