Member for Wagga Dr Joe McGirr and NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson met with ICG Construction Group staff at the site of the 12 newly completed social housing properties. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
A new social housing development in Wagga is set to be handed over to the NSW Government following completion earlier this week.
However, at least three tradies who built government housing on Spring Street in 2021 still haven’t been paid tens of thousands of dollars for their labour and materials.
The 12 new dwellings, located on North Parade in central Wagga, are the first step in unlocking the current deadlock halting the development of what’s called the Tolland Renewal Plan.
The Plan, to knock down and completely rebuild 500 social housing dwellings in the suburb, has been idle for years after hitting several roadblocks.
Following the announcement of the Tolland Renewal Plan, many living in social housing and private rental tenants were fearful that they could be left homeless while work on the several-year redevelopment took place.
NSW Housing and Homelessness Minister Rose Jackson, who visited the new homes this week, said that while the 12 new homes wouldn’t address the 500 homes that were set to be destroyed and rebuilt over the next decade, it was a step towards assuring that won’t happen.
“These 12 units will be secure, stable, supported housing for 19 people, able to get their lives back on track. Critically, this development allows us to unlock the broader Tolland estate development,” she said.
“The Tolland estate development is something that we’re really passionate about pursuing from the NSW Government, but it’s had some teething problems. We’ve worked systematically through these issues and we now have the opportunity to relocate residents from that estate to places like this.
“These are better homes. They’re more energy efficient, they’re more disability accessible and these are better homes.”
Wagga’s recent history with building new social housing has been challenging. A Region investigation revealed that the NSW Government chose a company that was already insolvent (Matrix Group) to build four new social housing units on Spring Street in early 2021. When Matrix officially went into liquidation later that year, it left a string of mum and dad subcontractors unpaid for work they did to construct the Wagga dwellings.
Some four years later, plasterer Richard Foley says he is still owed $55,000, Wagga Glass and Aluminium managing director Kevin Roben says he is out of pocket $42,000, while Amy Burns of Bundalong’s Oasis Scaffolding and Bricklaying says her business is owed more than $90,000.
Kevin Roben said he’d never lost so much on a job in his 40 years in the industry. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
Ms Jackson said it was a mistake made under the previous Coalition government and that her department was not responsible for paying tradies left out of pocket.
“We’ve been working with those subcontractors over the collapse of the Matrix group, we’re going to see what we can do, but ultimately their (previous subcontractors) pay dispute is not with us, it’s not with the NSW Government,” she said.
Plasterer Richard Foley strongly disagrees.
“The NSW Government chose an insolvent company to build the public housing. They are the ones that have a duty of care to compensate those of us who have been left out of pocket, but the government have done nothing to help us,” he said.
Wagga MP Joe McGirr has also called on the NSW Government to pay the tradies directly, saying it has an “ethical, if not actual legal obligation” to do so.
Ms Jackson said her department was trying to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
“One of the things that was made really clear to me is that HomesNSW needed to improve its due diligence in terms of some of the contracting that it was doing,” she said.
“To be honest, we’ve been burnt by that as well. I have so much confidence in the partners that we’re using now. Local small businesses that are incredibly reputable, but I do want to give that assurance that we’ve recognised that historically, due diligence hasn’t always been done and that we’ve really improved our processes for the future.”
The 12 new homes, managed by ICG Construction Group, will be handed over to HomesNSW in early September.
If you know more about issues with the Tolland or Spring Street project, please email [email protected] or phone 0427525600
