Interview with Tom Connell, Sky News

Event: Interview with Tom Connell, Sky News
Date: 16 April 2025, 4:15pm AEST
Speakers: Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia
Topics: federal election; housing crisis; skilled migrations

E&OE

Tom Connell, host Sky News: Joining me now, Master Builders Australia, CEO Denita Wawn. Thank you for your time. So I guess on that first element, because we’re short of construction workers, that’s probably the key choke point at the moment. Did you get much encouragement from either side on the overseas element of this?

Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders Australia: No, is the simple answer Tom. We know we need at least 200,000-odd more entrants into the industry to meet the one million target. Not enough consistency today. If you’re going to get 200,000 you can’t rely on apprentices that are currently in the system. Where else are we going to get people, other than trying to get people out of retirement? So for us, it is critical that we have a prioritisation of trades and specialised pathways, like our competitors do in New Zealand, Canada and the UK.

Tom: So, the Liberal Party are concerned about migration, which is why they’re not really committing. And the Labor Party don’t want, it seems, competition for local jobs. So neither you think are really going to touch the dials too much on this?

Denita: So, not at this stage, but the reality is going to hit the road if they are going to meet targets, and if we are actually going to build for all Australians, we’ve got to see this like an infrastructure project that we’ve done a bold. When we were building the Snowy, the first iteration, we brought a whole stack of migrants in this country to help us do it. This is no different. We need migration as the immediate solution. While we work to increase our local workforce.

Tom: There have been efforts of that. Fee free TAFE, and both are offering incentives. Is that sort of working? But just not fast enough? Because I have seen a lot of figures of the workforce is increasing, not quickly enough.

Denita: It’s not quickly enough. Apprentices, yes, we’re seeing a slight uptick in apprentice numbers, but not much, and completion rates are still wallowing around 50 per cent. So, until we really focus on completion rates, we help employers, we help the apprentices through those last few years of their apprenticeship, we’re still going to have insignificant numbers. But the numbers we need are now, and that is why migration is the solution. But also remembering we have a huge number of migrants in Australia who are skilled but find the licencing arrangements expensive and long, and we need to help them as well.

Tom: Recognising their skills in another area. Planning reform and targets. The Coalition says it’s unrealistic, but they won’t give their own target. There was sort of indication they’ll beat Labor by 30,000 a year. What did you make of that side of things?

Denita: Well, targets are important because we know that this is not an aspirational target. It’s a needed target to house all Australians. Part of the critical reason why we don’t have enough homes at the moment is the quagmire of planning in this country. And it’s not just planning, but it’s about the approval process as well.

Tom: That national process that’s going on might not be there yet, but keep it going?

Denita: Keep it going and the Coalition at the moment are not committed to the leadership in that area. They have to be.

Tom: They did say there’s nothing wrong with it, a simple sort of keep it in place? But you wanted more sort of enthusiasm, I suppose?

Denita: Some support. We’ve been pushing the Coalition in the prior government for them to focus on this area. They keep on saying it’s the state government. Seventy per cent of Australians say that our housing crisis has to be resolved by the federal government.

Tom: Because, you know, I mean, here’s one example. There are ideas out there for, let’s have a national agreement that townhouses can basically be built anywhere, because otherwise, if you want a townhouse at state and council, is that the sort of thing you’d hope this national body could perhaps get going?

Denita: Absolutely. We need to see much greater utilisation of medium density, of getting high density in certain areas, particularly in transport corridors, but when you look at the delays in and the difficulties in getting approvals through in the first place, that’s got to be streamlined, but it also means more people in local government to actually approve applications in the first place.

Tom: Three-tiered government has been an issue. Danita Wawn, I appreciate your time.

Media contact:
Dee Zegarac
National Director, Media & Public Affairs
0400 493 071
dee.zegarac@masterbuilders.com.au