“Of particular importance to the residential building industry is the recognition that skilled tradespeople are essential to increasing Australia’s housing supply,” added Mr Reardon.

“A demand-driven migration system that continues to attract skilled construction workers to Australia, recognises their qualifications appropriately and processes their applications efficiently will help expand the industry’s capacity to build the homes Australia needs.

“If these reforms successfully combine greater recognition of trade qualifications, priority visa processing for construction workers and more efficient recognition of overseas skills, they represent a significant improvement in Australia’s approach to building the construction workforce.

“These policies can work to mitigate the boom to bust cycles that the building industry has endured over recent years. 
Today’s announcement comes as the ABS released its national, state and territory population data for the March quarter 2026, covering births, deaths and migration.

“There is still significant underlying demand for housing across Australia, making today’s announcement around the importance of skilled migration all the more relevant.

“Australia’s population grew by 392,730 in the 12 months to March 2026, compared to an average annual population increase of around 365,000 in the 2010s.

“This is particularly impressive given Australia’s rate of natural increase (births minus deaths) has been declining, from above 150,000 per year during the 2010s to just 100,590 in the latest year. This is being more than offset by the surge in net overseas migration.

“If the Australian Government wants to build enough housing and sustainably address the affordability crisis, they need to help reduce the costs of construction.

“Addressing trades shortages through skilled migration is an important step towards ensuring Australia can sustain healthy and affordable pipelines of construction work across sectors,” concluded Mr Reardon.

Several states and territories are now above their pre-pandemic decade population trajectories, led by Western Australia (+170,930) and Queensland (+154,570), particularly impressive for Western Australia with just over half the total population of Queensland.

This is followed by South Australia (+50,440), Tasmania (+15,680), the Northern Territory (+6,150) and the Australian Capital Territory (+2,620). New South Wales (-79,740) and Victoria (-221,630) are still below their pre-pandemic decade population trajectories.

Australia's population growth by component - MAT

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