The skills shortfall

Over 4,500 Tasmanian families are on the waiting list for a home, and they'll wait for almost two years to get one. Wherever you go in Tassie, housing is front of mind for most people. If you're not struggling to find a house or a rental, you know someone who is. We know we're in a housing crisis, and the best way to help people get a roof over their heads, to help renters and to get on top of this problem is to build more homes. But houses don't just spring up by themselves as if grown from magical beans. We need tradies to build them, and it's pretty clear that we don't have enough tradies around to build the number of houses we need.

According to Build Skills Australia, a government body, we're short about 90,000 tradies. We can't wave a magic wand and have 90,000 new tradies appear in a few months. It takes years for people to complete a trade qualification, and there are just not enough Australians who are taking them on. It's obvious there's a role for migrants to play here. Trades aren't on the priority migration skilled occupation list, but they should be. If there are people who want to come to Australia who already have the skills we need and can get to work on construction straightaway, let's make sure they get here without months and years of red tape. We can also incentivise migrants who are already here and currently without work to take up a trade. Let's give them access to free TAFE places and think about pathways to citizenship if they do. It will bring in people who can be skilled up quickly and give them an incentive to pick a trade over other career paths. If we don't take action now to boost our tradie numbers, getting on top of the housing crisis will continue to be a distant dream rather than a reality.