Industry calls for urgent change as more Canberra builders collapse

After the collapse of a series of Canberra builders, the construction union is calling for change.

Transcript

00:00 The impacts of a collapse like project coordination can't be downplayed or understated.

00:08 These collapses have a massive ripple effect through our industry and through the community.

00:13 We're talking to subcontractors, some of whom aren't that big, who are local Canberra businesses

00:19 who are owed up to half a million and sometimes more.

00:22 For those businesses, it is very hard and sometimes, unfortunately, impossible to wear

00:28 a loss like that.

00:29 The thing that people need to keep in mind when we talk about insolvency events is that

00:35 the money that is lost is money for work that's already been performed.

00:38 For a lot of times, these subcontractors, these suppliers have borne the cost of labour

00:44 and materials and are getting paid in arrears for work that's already been performed.

00:50 These businesses, sometimes it can prove impossible or incredibly difficult to wear the cost of

00:56 an insolvency event when a builder goes under.

00:59 We need urgent change in our industry.

01:00 Our union has been calling for that sort of reform for years now.

01:05 We know what needs to be done.

01:06 We can't afford to see more and more builders and more and more construction companies collapse.

01:12 We know from the Murray Review that there is a template there to establish statutory

01:16 trusts.

01:17 That means that the money that is allocated for a project remains in a trust and can only

01:22 be paid to those companies and those workers that perform work there.

01:25 But more broadly, we need to look at the way the industry is structured.

01:28 We need to look at contract terms and we need to look at how risk is allocated through the

01:32 supply chains in our industry.

01:34 [END]