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Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn
National Press Club Address
11 November 2026
Master Builders Australia has today called on both sides of politics to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver permanent reform to Australia’s building and construction industry, warning that the Administration of the CFMEU must be the beginning of change, not the end.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn launched Built to Last, a blueprint for permanent industry reform aimed at eliminating criminal influence, improving productivity and restoring confidence across the construction sector.
The Built to Last plan is centred on three key reforms:
- Establishing a dedicated national construction industry regulator with powers to investigate corruption, criminal influence and anti-competitive conduct.
- Ensuring the CFMEU administration process works as intended before any return to normal governance arrangements.
- Strengthening individual accountability through fit-and-proper-person requirements and stronger whistleblower protections.
“For forty years, there have been royal commissions, court cases, inquiries and investigations. Different decades, different governments, different commissioners, the same problem. We cannot continue to address symptoms while leaving the underlying causes untouched,” said Ms Wawn.
“If we are to permanently reform the sector, the framework needs to be built on a solid foundation, or it will simply buckle again further down the track.
“We are asking both sides of politics today to complete the project, so when the scaffold of the CFMEU Administration comes down, we have a strong industry supported by a regulator backed in with stronger laws.
“Australia has before it, at this very moment, a narrow window of opportunity, to deliver lasting reform once and for all. This is about what sort of country we want to be. Too many people have been afraid to tell the truth about what has been happening because they feared for themselves, their businesses and their families.
“Over the decades there have been builders who spoke up and paid for it with their businesses. Workers who said no to something they knew was wrong and found themselves unemployable. Union members and officials who raised concerns inside their own organisations and were shut down.
“The shadow of fear must end. We have the evidence and now the opportunity to fix the foundations and build an industry that is built to last.”
A copy of the National Press Club speech can be found here.
A copy of the Built to Last report can be found here.
Media contact: Dylan Hafey, Adviser, Media & Government Relations
0497 330 064 | dylan.hafey@masterbuilders.com.au