Interview with Jaimee Rogers, News 24

Event: Interview with Jaimee Rogers, News 24

Date: 8 November 2026, 7.30pm AEDT
Speakers: Denita Wawn, Master Builders Australia CEO

Topics: National Housing Accord shortfall, construction productivity, CFMEU, project feasibility.

E&OE

Jaimee Rogers, News 24 host: Australia’s housing crisis is showing little sign of easing, and some alarming new figures suggest the situation could get worse. New ABS data reveals the rate of abandoned building projects in New South Wales has doubled in just one year, with 50,000 homes completed last financial year, well short of the 77,000 needed annually to meet the housing target in New South Wales, builders are facing soaring construction costs, government charges, labour shortages, and higher interest rates. So, if we desperately need more homes, why are we making it so difficult to build them? Joining me now is the CEO of Master Builders Australia, Denita Wawn. Denita, welcome, let’s start with that ABS data, which shows the rate of abandoned building projects in New South Wales has doubled, but it also has had issues around the country. It really does highlight just how tough the industry is doing it, doesn’t it?

Denita Wawn, Master Builders Australia CEO: Absolutely. We know that we’re short around about 260,000 odd homes to meet the Housing Accord target over the next few years, but that is even before we now looked at those interest rate increases and the further price increases. Project feasibility is a significant problem, and it means people are not willing to spend the money on housing at the moment because it’s simply too expensive, and so we’ve got to get costs down and there are a myriad of issues that we need to address to get those costs down and get people spending again on housing, so we can meet housing demand across the country.

Host: Well, the Minns Government has announced plans to ease the financial pressure on builders by delaying infrastructure levies until the construction is complete, rather than charging them upfront. Do you think this will actually help?

Denita: Look, we do. It’s a good announcement in that the big issue at the moment is costs for starting a project and getting it off the ground are simply too high, and so the Minn’s decision on this issue around changing the timing of this payment is important. But what we’ve got to realize is there are a multitude of regulatory and compliance and time pressures on projects at the moment, combined with higher investment taxes, combined with labour shortages, combined with material shortages, all escalating in costs. So, while it’s good that governments have one policy lever that might assist, we’ve got to ensure that every single policy decision is actually heading in the right direction, and we’ve seen that with the Federal Government. They are making good decisions around, for example, streamlining of the National Construction Code, but then we had a Budget that actually increased taxation on the investment of homes, not only totally contrary to the intent of increasing demand, but also a breach of an election promise as well.

Host: And construction productivity, I found it interesting when you look at the data that it’s fallen more than 20 per cent over the past decade. How much do you put that down to workplace rules, but also around union agreements?

Denita: Absolutely, we’ve always said that the CFMEU tax is the parlance that we use at the MBA has increased costs by around 30 per cent, certainly from a high-rise development perspective. Now that is something that we were ridiculed prior to the CFMEU going into Administration, but we know from additional new evidence that that is about on the money. That is because of the restrictive nature of those EBAs. It means, for example, in Queensland, where we had evidence of an average only working three days every five on a building site, so we need to sit down with the Administrator, make sure that the enterprise agreements that are coming up for renegotiation over the next 12 months actually meet productivity improvements on site. But more importantly, we’re seeing the issues around industrial relations all play out in some of the decisions that were made by the Government a couple of years ago, where we’re also concerned, such as multi-employer bargaining, creating more pressures and more costs into the economy as well.

Host: And Master Builders, just before I let you go, when we’re talking about productivity, it was interesting just to see how much regulatory costs are adding to a potential new house, and it’s upwards towards like $320,000, which is an extraordinary figure. And in addition to the cost of materials, how much of the regulatory cost is going into that 320,000, is this all of the different red tape that you need to jump over? Is it the wages? It just seems like a huge amount of money that needs to be added to be able to build a new home.

Denita: It’s all unfortunately about red tape, it’s all about time. Every day that a building site is not active; it means money and at the moment, and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition just quite rightly pointed out, we now have significant compliance costs, but also time constraints, which then means that the cost of doing business is escalated as well. So, we’re saying to Federal Government, which is saying to state governments, and we’re saying to local government, quickly make decisions when it comes to planning approvals, building approvals. Don’t make it overburdensome in terms of compliance. Let’s get back to basics and of course, that doesn’t even discuss the issues around labour shortages as well, which escalate wages and compounds the problem.

Host: It certainly seems like an industry, Denita, that we should be removing as much red tape and regulation to get these houses and properties made, so that we can address this housing shortage. Thanks for your time this evening. We’ll chat to you again soon.

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

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