Interview with Chris Kenny, Sky News

Event: Interview with Chris Kenny, Sky News
Date: 09 August 2024, 5:15pm AEST
Speakers: Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders Australia
Topics: Industry Forecasts, National Housing Accord, building delays

E&OE

Chris Kenny, host Sky News: Now we told you at the time, of course, that Labor’s housing plan was all pie in the sky stuff, it was always a fantasy. He’s a reminder of what the government promised to build.

Clip – Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Parliament: “…the affordable homes that our country desperately needs and to help tackle our housing crisis. The ambition of this accord is big and it’s bold. It’s an aspiration to build one million new, well-located homes over five years.”

Chris: Yeah, that was a million homes, including the construction of 40,000 social housing dwellings, but as The Australian reports, no new dwellings have been completed after more than two years in office. Unbelievable. Let’s bring in the Master Builders Australia Chief Executive Denita Wawn, who’s joining us live from Canberra. Thanks for joining us. Denita, this seems incredible that in two years you couldn’t get a few houses built, not even any?

Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders Australia: Well, it’d be great to think that we could build some, Chris, although I must say we’ve got a huge number of labour shortages, so there might have been some delays anyway. We understand Housing Australia will announce the first round of those tenders sometime this month. So, but of course, we’ve then got to actually start building. So, it is going to take quite some time, the term of this Parliament, nevertheless, something is better than nothing, and certainly we need to be focusing not only on government funded housing, but also increasing private demand.

Chris: Exactly. I mean, we’ve got record immigration, we’ve got a housing crisis, we’ve got the mortgage stress crisis, as well as I talked about at the top of the program. You’re talking about tenders going out next month, and the ground is not going to be tilled. The foundations are not going to be poured on in these houses until a second term if Labor wins the election a whole term to get cracking.

Denita: That’s right, Chris. And certainly, the biggest issue that’s confronting the industry at the moment is about actually getting land ready for building in the first place. So you know, we know we’ve got shortages of labour, shortages of resources in key critical infrastructure, so the delays we’re seeing just purely to get the civil works before we can then start building, is significant. And then, of course, once we start building, we need to ensure that we have appropriate labour. So this is not just a housing portfolio issue, it is, and it is not just a federal government issue, it’s all layers of government that need to stop the talk and start action, and also we need to ensure that all levers of government are working in the same way, as opposed to being inconsistent with one another.

Chris: Well, this is what frustrates me so much, and especially with a Labor approach to this sort of issue, a housing crisis and the need to get more homes built, they come up with a big, grand promise and a big new program and all sorts of spending and more laws and more rules and more funds. Surely, the answer to our housing crisis is governments, as you say, at all levels, local, state and federal, getting out of the way, making it simpler to get approvals and simpler to actually get out there and build it so the private sector can satisfy that demand. At the moment, government just makes it all more expensive and slows it all down.

Denita: That’s right, Chris. Unfortunately, we’re seeing building costs increase between 30 to 40 per cent. It now takes nearly double the time to build a detached home and another year in terms of high-density building, and part of that is compliance and delays. And so, we need to try and steam, steamroll, streamline the problems and ensure that we get building as quickly as possible. For us, it’s all about planning, zoning, efficiencies, people and, of course, industrial relations. We’ve had huge changes to industrial relations, in many instances inefficient. We’ve been very supportive of the administration of the CFMEU, but that’s just the first step in that place. A lot more work to be done to make us as productive as possible, to build those one million homes. And of course, we can’t forget that all governments agreed not just to one million, but 1.2 million at national cabinet in August last year.

Chris: Yeah, let’s not hold our breath, but let’s get cracking as you say. Thanks for joining us, Denita, I appreciate it. Denita Wawn there, who is the Chief Executive Master Builders Australia.

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