THE ACT Budget has shown that the government hasn’t learnt from previous lessons, said Master Builders ACT CEO Michael Hopkins.

He was lamenting that the Barr government’s latest Budget hasn’t dealt with the “number one” issue impacting every local building and construction business, the lack of skilled workers required to deliver infrastructure and building projects.

“We read with disbelief on page 12 of the Budget papers that the government believes our skills shortage is ‘perceived’,” he said.

“You can’t build more houses and infrastructure without the skilled workers to do the job,”

He believed that while Budget announcements of more land release and continued infrastructure investment were welcomed, it was the Budget’s lack of investment in skills and training that would hold back the ACT’s economic recovery. 

“The Budget’s failure to address the territory’s skills shortage crisis follows years of underfunding in apprenticeship investment, support for local training, and lack of a training and skills plan to address this critical issue,” he said.

“Budget papers show $527,000 of funding to grow future skills with more apprenticeship and vocational training places was cut from 2021-22 and pushed to future years. This money could have been used to recruit more apprentices to the building and construction industry.

“The ACT government’s failure to address skills shortages means that traffic controller training is now carried out in NSW, our plumbing and carpentry apprentices receive the lowest level of support of any jurisdiction in Australia, and the completion of the Skilling Australia and Job Trainer funding will create further obstacles for attracting people from non-traditional and disadvantaged backgrounds into the construction industry. 

“The ACT government’s investment in infrastructure has helped support local building and construction businesses through the pandemic, however its handling of time and cost variations due to supply chain disruptions, price escalation and labour shortages, has put unnecessary strain on local businesses trying to recover from the nation’s longest construction industry lockdown in 2021. 

“It would take a fraction of the $7 billion infrastructure funding directed to skills investment to make a real difference to training local Canberrans, rather than the ever-increasing reliance on interstate skilled labour to build our local infrastructure.”