Master Builders Transcript: Interview with Nick Rheinberger, ABC Illawarra Mornings Radio

Event: Interview with Nick Rheinberger, ABC Illawarra Mornings Radio

Date: 3 August 2026, 8.45am AEST
Speakers: Melissa Bryne, Master Builders Australia National Director of Policy and Legal

Topics: Skilled migration, recognition of prior learning, domestic apprenticeships

E&OE

Nick Rheinberger, ABC News Radio host: The two biggest parts of the political conversation at the moment, I’d suggest that they were A) housing and B) immigration. So, how do we mix our immigration to our advantage and also to our responsibility of the world to be good human beings? A lot of it comes down to what kind of skills we’re encouraging to come into Australia, and can these two things be connected? Some new analysis from Master Builders suggests that if we get skilled migrants, they can contribute to the building of homes if we get the right skills. Melissa Bryne is National Director of Policy and Legal for Master Builders and joins us now here at ABC Illawarra Mornings. Melissa Bryne, good morning.

Melissa Bryne, Master Builders Australia National Director of Policy and Legal: Good morning.

Host: What’s the issue with the mix of skills we’ve got coming into Australia right now?

Melissa: Well, from our perspective, we’re not prioritising those skills we need to build the homes that all Australians want.

Host: Are those skills transferable into the Australian building scene? The materials we use, the techniques we use, and the standards we have.

Melissa: Yeah, well the short answer is yes. I think the current challenge is that our system for recognising those skills is costly and takes an inordinate amount of time that we just don’t have at the moment.

Host: What do we need to change in the system to recognise skills?

Melissa: Firstly, like I said, the costs need to be brought down. So, at the moment, when you try to bring in a worker from overseas, that business and that skilled migrant is lumped with a lot of costs in terms of getting those skills recognised, and as I said, it does take quite a long time. And for our sector, what our analysis shows that a skilled migrant over their 30-year career can build an additional 21 homes. We should be focused on bringing these skilled workers in cost-effectively and more quickly.

Host: Look, we all know the stories we hear about the qualified doctors that are having to be working as cleaners because their skills aren’t recognised. Now, clearly that is a complicated path but let’s talk about recognising skills. What does it take for someone to actually start working in the building industry in Australia?

Melissa: Well, at the moment, we have just over 18,000 skilled migrants in this country who are working below their skill level. So, a bit like those doctors who are working as cleaners…

Host: It’s a builder who’s serving pizzas or whatever it is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but what they want to be doing is using their skills. So, what’s stopping them? Besides the cost, what is stopping that?

Melissa: …well, as I indicated, this system of what’s called recognition of prior learning and how you go about matching skills learned overseas to fit in with our state-based licensing and qualification requirements is quite complex. Currently, every state and territory has different licensing regimes. So, even just moving from one state to another is quite complicated. Imagine how it is for somebody coming in from overseas.

Host: So, what do we need to change? Do we need a nationally recognised pathway?

Melissa: Well, that’s certainly been tried in the past. We’d certainly be open to some sort of harmonisation in terms of licensing requirements, but as I indicated, that requires all the states and territories to come to some sort of agreement around those minimum license conditions.

Host: I mean, you work in this area. Do we have reasonable coordination between the various bodies around Australia, between the various states?

Melissa: Look, I think there’s more work that we can do to improve that. Certainly, we have a framework for mutual recognition. There are some jurisdictions that have adopted the automatic mutual recognition system, which has taken us some way, but there are still a lot of gaps in both of those systems. So, as I said, even domestically, recognising skills across the country is difficult. So, trying to align things internationally with our domestic system is just another complication.

Host: Right. What’s this automatic mutual recognition system? Is that between different states?

Melissa: Yes, it’s between different states. Not all states have adopted or agreed to the system, and as the name suggests, it means if you have a certain qualification or certain license in one jurisdiction, that’s automatically recognised in another, but as I said, that’s not been adopted all across the country.

Host: Now, migration levels have come down and down over the last two or three years, but given the current migration rate, how many more builders, you know, tradies do we need to bring into the country?

Melissa: Well, I don’t think that’s where our focus is. Our focus is on the skilled migration system. We need 115,000 odd workers just for our housing to reach our housing targets, and we need about 300,000 to deliver on the infrastructure pipeline that’s currently projected. So, activating that 18,000 skilled migrants already in the country would certainly help meet those gaps. But as I said, we need both domestic and skilled migrants to meet those workforce shortages that we currently have.

Host: Can we meet any of, or start to meet any of these targets by training more Australians within our own skilled system, like TAFE?

Melissa: Absolutely, domestic supply of skilled trades is absolutely critical to bridging those workforce gaps. Some of the challenges with our domestic pipeline, is that there’s a significant lag. So, our apprenticeship system takes about three to four years for somebody to complete to become a qualified skilled tradesperson. So, you can imagine that that just builds in significant lag time. On top of the fact that our completion rates for those apprenticeships sit at about 50 per cent at the moment. So, skilled migration for us is certainly a short-term stopgap measure, whereas long-term we absolutely need to focus on building our domestic pipeline of trade.

Host: Okay, Melissa Bryne, thanks very much.

Media contact: Dylan Hafey, Adviser, Media & Government Relations

0497 330 064 |  dylan.hafey@masterbuilders.com.au