‘We need help’: Urgent call on housing crisis

The NSW Premier has raised serious concerns over chronic labour shortages in the state’s construction sector, warning severe worker shortfalls will cripple Labor’s national housing supply targets.

Chris Minns says it will “extremely difficult” for the state to meet the federal government’s plan to build 1.2 million new homes in the next five years.

Under the goal, an average of 75,000 homes would be built across NSW by 2029, requiring the state to double yearly construction to keep pace.

Mr Minns urged the government to fast-track the number of foreign tradies migrating into Australia to combat the current skills crisis.

“It’s a matter for them but they’ve got to make a decision about the mix of inbound immigrants to the country every twelve months,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

“We have got major supply constraints when it comes to new home builds in NSW and we need help particularly in construction across the state.

“I think it’s pretty reasonable for NSW to say that there needs to be a priority in relation to that because we need to roll out more housing.”

According to a recent report by BuildSkills Australia, the country needs 90,000 extra construction workers over the next three months to meet the federal government’s housing target by 2029.

Major national infrastructure projects such as the Western Sydney Airport are forecast to be the most affected by worker shortfalls, with estimates calling for the number of construction workers to be boosted from 590,000 to 680,000 as soon as July this year.

A recent report found housing supply in NSW has failed to keep up demand, forcing young Sydneysiders to pack up and move to other cities in the search for affordable housing.

NSW Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat warned in March that “if we don’t act, we could face Sydney becoming known as the city with no grandchildren”.

Mr Minns described the comments as “horrifying” and an entire generation of young people risked never owning a home.

“It’s everybody’s worst nightmare and it what happens when you have a decade of undersupply of housing in Sydney as a result of unnecessary over-regulation and red tape, as well as a trend across all levels of government to says no without thinking what the consequences are,” he said.