Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) calls on political leaders to focus on targeted migration in the short term and training in the medium term to rebuild the workforce with the skills and capacity to build the much-needed homes for Australians.
Migration accounts for 60% of our population growth and is critical to underpinning the skilled labour we need to deliver housing, particularly with construction employment in Australia still 38% below the long run average.
Tied to the need to rebuild the skilled workforce through targeted migration, is the need to ramp up training to meet the demand for housing supply.
As part of UDIA’s Federal Election Policy, we outlined the importance of implementing critical initiatives that will boost Australia’s housing capability and get us much closer to the National Accord Housing targets.
- Continue to find ways to prioritise migrants with house trade skills to rebuild the capacity of the industry including accelerated residency for migrants that take on a domestic apprentice in 12 months.
- Provide an additional training space to match each migrant skilled worker entering Australia – to ensure we encourage domestic, long term skilled workers.
“UDIA acknowledges the recent Labor and Coalition announcements to boost Australia’s training for construction workers and the inclusion of construction jobs on the apprentice priority list. It is through the implementation of these initiatives that we will go a long way toward closing the skills gap and enable more Australians to have a place to call home,” said Col Dutton, UDIA National President.
Our full policy document can be found at this link.
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Media Enquiries: Deanna Lane, Director Media & Communications, Urban Development Institute of Australia, National media@udia.com.au 0416 295 898