Public jobs building public homes
There are 45,000 people on the social housing waiting list in Queensland while construction companies are going bust and the government struggles to build enough social housing.
Decades of underinvestment, outsourcing and cuts by both Labor and the LNP has hollowed out QBuild. Before Labor started cutting in 2011, and before the LNP gutted it in 2012-13, there were 3,600 workers including 315 apprentices in our publicly owned construction company.
QBuild now has just 2,300 workers and 100 apprentices. Queensland Labor only plans to employ a total of 200 apprentices, fewer than QBuild employed in 2007.
Queensland needs tens of thousands of extra homes each year and more qualified tradies to build them. Private building companies are under pressure, and new construction apprenticeships have fallen by a third in just a year.
The Greens will:
- Expand Queensland’s publicly owned builder, QBuild, to clear the social housing waiting list within four years by building public homes, under contracts with the Queensland Greens’ new public property developer.
- Create 10,000 guaranteed QBuild jobs, including 7,000 positions for qualified tradespeople and 3,000 apprentices, backed by a $500 million investment in new equipment, workshops and infrastructure.
- Reverse the privatisation and outsourcing at QBuild by directly employing tradies and apprentices to build public homes, all funded by the Greens’ public developer.
Buy up insolvent building companies to keep tradies in work with a $500 million fund to let QBuild step in when firms collapse, bringing in skilled workers to build more public housing.
The Greens would get the government back in the business of actually building public homes by creating 10,000 construction jobs in a bigger, better QBuild.
QBuild would deliver well-designed, high quality public homes on behalf of the Queensland Greens’ public property developer. The new jobs would be funded by contracts with the public developer, which would invest $60 billion in building 100,000 public homes over six years.
The new public homes would be used to clear the 45,000-strong social housing waiting list within four years, with the remainder offered to any Queenslander to rent or buy. They would be offered at below market rates, at prices everyday people can actually afford.
Right now private developers make huge profits while they squeeze construction workers, renters and first home buyers. That means the workers building luxury apartments often can’t afford to live there themselves.
Jobs at QBuild are secure, with good pay and conditions and strong union protections.
To cover the up-front costs of scaling up QBuild, the Greens would allocate $500 million for new equipment, workshops and infrastructure.
| Jobs in QBuild |
|
|
|
Qualified tradespeople |
400 |
7,000 |
|
Apprentices |
100 |
3,000 |
|
Other, including admin & contract management |
1,800 |
3,000 |
| Total | 2,300 | 13,000 |
Creating 3,000 new apprenticeships
The Greens’ plans for 100,000 new public homes would grow the residential construction sector by 30%. By expanding QBuild we can provide more opportunities for aspiring tradies at a time when the private sector is struggling to take on new apprentices.
The Greens’ 3,000 new apprenticeships at QBuild would increase the total number of apprentices in Queensland by 20%, even before any new private sector positions.
Despite Labor’s existing initiatives, the number of new apprenticeships in construction fell by 2,600, or more than one third in just one year.1
As conditions grow more challenging and unpredictable, there are fewer businesses able to provide apprentices the training and stability they need.
Apprentices at QBuild earn good wages, so expanding this successful program will attract more young people to take up a trade.
Reverse privatisation and outsourcing
Privatisation has failed. After years of cuts and under resourcing, QBuild contracts out the vast majority of its work, often meaning higher costs and poorer quality work.
The Greens will rebuild expertise in the public construction sector by transitioning away from outsourcing over the next four years.
Keeping tradies in work by buying up insolvent building firms
The boom and bust cycle of the construction industry is sending ten Queensland building businesses broke every week.2 Construction insolvencies are at 10 year highs.3
The Greens would establish a $500 million fund to let QBuild step in to buy out any major construction firms which go bust. We would offer home buyers the option to continue with their projects where feasible. The Greens’ public developer would convert remaining unfinished homes into public housing.
This plan would keep skilled workers in the industry and bring in extra capacity and equipment for QBuild.
How we’ll pay for it
Our plan for a bigger, better QBuild would be funded by contracts from the Queensland Greens’ public property developer. The public developer would invest $60 billion in building 100,000 public homes, including via QBuild and the private construction sector.
The additional $500 million for upfront costs and $500 million to buy out insolvent construction companies would be funded by the Greens’ $61 billion Fair Share Plan to raise royalties on big mining companies.
Sources:
1 Qld Government VET data
2 ASIC Insolvency Statistics
3 AFR 2 April 2024 ‘Tsunami’ of headwinds faces builders as collapses surge by a third.