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{{propApi.successMessage}} {{region}} Change locationProductivity Commission backs practical relief for small builders – but the biggest barriers remain off the table
Productivity Commission backs practical relief for small builders – but the biggest barriers remain off the table
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The report, importantly, also recognises that productivity has stalled and no single reform will restore it.
However, the deliberate decision to exclude workplace relations and tax from the inquiry leaves the most significant barriers to growth untouched.
HIA Managing Director Jocelyn Martin said the interim report is a positive step towards improving productivity and business dynamism, if Government and decision-makers act appropriately in light of the recommendations.
“Residential building is primarily a small and medium business industry. Most of our members are family builders and trade contractors working on thin margins without in-house lawyers or compliance teams. Several of the Commission’s reform directions go directly to the problems they face every day,” Ms Martin said.
HIA backs practical reforms to help small builders recover from financial difficulty and reduce red tape, including merit-based licence and insurance assessments for restructuring builders and a ‘tell us once’ approach to end duplicate information requests.
Despite the positives in the interim report, HIA is gravely concerned about the limited scope of the PC’s inquiry, which deliberately excludes assessment of key government policy areas – ones which are having significant negative impacts on business dynamism, productivity and Australia’s economic prosperity.
HIA shares the concern raised by ACCI and the Business Council that the Treasurer’s terms of reference excluded tax, workplace relations and mergers. The Commission itself notes that education, training, migration and housing also sit outside the inquiry.
“In July, HIA asked the Treasurer to task the Commission with an evidence-based review of the productivity impacts of recent industrial relations reforms. That request still stands,” Ms Martin said.
“An inquiry into barriers to business growth that cannot examine workplace relations, tax, skills or housing will not give government a complete picture of what is holding back home building. The reforms in this report are worth doing, and should be progressed, but they are not a substitute for the harder reforms the Government has chosen not to examine.”
HIA will make a submission to the Commission by the 11 December 2026 deadline. The final report is due to Government by 12 May 2027.
For more information please contact:
Productivity Commission backs practical relief for small builders – but the biggest barriers remain off the table
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) welcomes the release of the Productivity Commission’s interim report, Unlocking business dynamism, that proposes reforms that has the potential to help small residential builders and trade contractors comply, restructure and recover.
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