Chris Roche wants the State and Federal governments to support young tradies starting their apprenticeship. Photo: Chris Roe.
A longtime Wagga businessman has warned that state authorities need to find a way to incentivise young people into picking up a trade, with regional centres set to lose skills to metropolitan hubs like Brisbane.
Infrastructure Australia data comparing supply and demand for construction jobs in Queensland shows there are only 42,200 workers available as of July, when 83,300 workers are needed to meet current demand.
As construction for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics draws near, this gap is predicted to widen to a shortage of 54,700 workers.
“My god, and they’re going to come from somewhere else,” Wagga Ratepayers Association president Chris Roche said.
“They’re either going to come from the overseas market or from regional centres; people will relocate to Perth [or Brisbane] for better short term money, which is going to have an extra drain on our regional centres.
“We need better opportunities for people to do more training to get into these trades, especially the construction side.
“Australia is about to go through a huge boom in construction, and we need more tradespeople, be it men or women.”
TAFE NSW Wagga teacher Dean Gramson thinks it would be more beneficial to encourage young Australians to pick up a trade, rather than import workers from overseas.
“There’s different regs they’ve got to have,” Mr Gramson said.
“Maybe they have to gap train to get qualified. You can’t just bring people in.”
He encourages more women to get into trade, saying they are more detail-oriented. One of his students, Esther McDonald, was recently recognised by Masters Painters Association for her painting and decorating.
“I find that females have a little bit more attention to detail,” he said.
“There’s more and more girls in the trades. I see girls in carpentry, cabinet making, plumbing, electro … It’s great. And what they do, they produce it really well.”
The trades teacher noticed a trend of young people gravitating towards trades such as building, plumbing and carpentry, leaving other trades such as painting, decorating and baking short on numbers.
“That’s why we have a trade shortage; it’s hard to get kids that want to do tiling because they’ve never been exposed to it,” Mr Gramson said.
“Or painting, bricking or concreting. Even things like baking, they’re low in numbers. I know employers that are looking for bakers.”
Mr Roche thinks this shortage is contributing to the housing crisis and Wagga won’t meet the demand for 5000 dwellings by 2041.
“I just think becoming a tradesman is sometimes so much more beneficial for the community than, say, becoming another qualified expert from university,” he said.
“That new section from Estella over the hill behind where they’re going to put the hotel? It’ll sit there for a couple of years before they can start construction, which is really quite sad.
“I don’t know the reason, but I would suggest one of the reasons could be the fact that we need more construction staff.
“I’m actually actively encouraging my boys to get into a trade versus go to university, because I see long term, they’re more practical.
“When you look at AI replacing jobs, they can replace a bank teller, but they can’t replace a plumber or an electrician.
“I think the State [and] Federal government needs to find out a way to better support apprentices when doing their first two or three years, where their salary is quite low because they are learning.
“If there was a way that the Federal Government could waive a portion of their income tax to better encourage people into those trades.”
