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The Housing Industry Association (HIA) is expressing both disappointment and anger on behalf of the thousands of small businesses in the ACT building and construction industry that will be impacted by the decision to delay reopening of residential building sites, while allowing large sites including government projects to reopen next week.
“The last two weeks has been very challenging for the industry. Builders and trade people working from home is not an option, and when the industry is not working, people are not getting paid,” said Greg Weller, HIA Executive Director ACT/Southern NSW.
“Not only has this taken a toll on builders and tradespeople, there are many Canberrans waiting to get into their new homes that are now under financial stress, or feeling pressure to move out of their existing accommodation.
“It is incredibly disappointing that the ACT Government has given a blessing to large civil and commercial sites to reopen from next week, but has left the small business in housing out in the cold.
“HIA in good faith has accepted the initial shutdown, despite its challenges and we have worked with the Government to outline a simple, and what we believe would be an effective and safe pathway, to reopen small scale residential building sites.
“HIA’s plan accepted reduced numbers of workers on sites and the adoption of all the same COVID safety measures now proposed for large sites. Today’s announcement comes as a surprise and a great disappointment.
“If some building sites can open safely, then why can’t others? Detached home building projects operate predominantly outdoors and in open spaces, and only require minimal numbers of people to be on site at any one time.
“To suggest that a large commercial sites which have hundreds of workers attend on a daily basis can operate with a lower risk than detached home building with three or four people is just non sensical.
“The residential building industry in the ACT and across Australia has had an exceptional record of operating safely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No other jurisdiction has locked down home building in this way for this length of time, and there has been no evidence that the industry has been a source of transmission,” concluded Mr Weller.
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“The RBA decision to keep interest rates in restrictive territory today will not stop the improvement in leading indicators of future home building,” stated HIA Senior Economist Tom Devitt.
In mid-June 2025, the NSW Premier released the Housing and Productivity Contribution (HPC) Works-in-Kind Guideline for public consultation.
Today the State Government announced proposed changes to the regulatory powers to investigate registered builders who may be unable to meet the financial requirements of registration. The announcement also included a long-awaited review of the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (HBCA) and associated laws.
Housing Industry Association welcomes today’s announcement by the Cook Labor Government to review key aspects of the home building contracts legislation and provide the building regulator with additional powers to work with builders in distress.