Across Australia we face constraints on new home building supply and the ability of households to undertake major renovations. The most prominent example is Melbourne.

Many potential new home buyers are stepping back from building a new home as a dire shortage of skilled labour contributes to hefty delays in project start times and significant increases in the cost of a final project. The same can be said for large-scale renovation jobs such as ground floor and second storey extensions, which should form an important component of Victoria’s economic activity.

The Victorian government’s Big Build projects is slowing down residential building and increasing the cost of labour.Credit: Jason South

These issues in Victoria are being exacerbated not only by Melbourne’s Big Build infrastructure program including the Suburban Rail Link, but also by the nefarious and alleged criminal activities of the construction arm of the CFMEU.

The union’s stranglehold on the state’s major road and rail projects is adversely affecting costs, efficiency, quality and consequently productivity growth, while contributing to squeezing out the availability of skilled labour for new home building and renovation projects.

The activities of the CFMEU reek like a street that hasn’t had its rubbish emptied for a month. This has had a cascading impact on construction all the way down the chain to residential building. The alleged criminal behaviour of the CFMEU in aggressively placing workers on non-residential building sites has debased the quality of skilled labourers on these sites and has had a negative impact on the confidence of businesses, workers, and households. This in turn is hampering the prospect of real........

© Brisbane Times