Alright, folks, gather ’round. Just popped back from a bit of a hiatus—welcomed a tiny new boss into the household, which means I’m about running on fumes and haven’t slept a wink. But here’s the skinny: enough with these sky-high targets on new homes. Really, what’s the deal with these magical numbers? 1.2 million homes by 2029? Pull the other one!
While the bigwigs love a grand announcement, I’m pulling my hair out, thinking about who’s going to hammer in all those nails. We’re staring down the barrel of a serious tradie drought, folks. Down in South East Queensland, they’re whistling past the graveyard, thinking they can build a small city overnight. And the kicker? We need a whopping 90,000 more sturdy hands even to come close to that target.
But here’s a twist—while the CFMEU’s out there making sure our tradie mates get a fair shake with better pay and more days off (57, count ’em!), it’s only making it tougher to keep costs down. Every new cost slapped on a project is another nail in the coffin of affordable housing.
And don’t get me started on inflation. It’s like a bad party guest that just won’t leave. Everything’s costing an arm and a leg, and it’s only gonna get worse with all this spending on big-ticket items without a spare tradie in sight.
Now, we’re at a crossroads here. We’ve got jobs coming out of our ears with nowhere near enough hands to do the work. It’s high time we stopped pulling numbers out of a hat and started pulling more tradies into the game. How about we pump up those apprenticeship numbers and actually prepare for tomorrow today?
So, let’s dial back on the big dreams and start laying down some real plans. Or we’ll keep running this treadmill that’s going nowhere fast. And hey, while we’re at it, let’s not pour more concrete on the roads we’ve already got—let’s make paths we can actually walk on.
