WA Government to launch raid on east coast tradies by offering $10,000 relocation bonus

The WA Government hopes a $10,000 bonus will lure enough east coast tradies to make a dent in the State’s housing crisis.

The Sunday Times can reveal the Cook Government is expected within weeks to announce the payment it hopes will attract tradies from other States.

The government hopes WA’s growing reputation as the best State in Australia — with a thriving economy and a lifestyle the envy of much of the world — and cold hard cash will be enough to lure brickies, electricians, plasterers, and carpenters to WA to work in the residential construction industry.

It’s understood the $10,000 incentive plan was recently discussed at senior government levels with the Property Council of WA and the Housing Industry Association of WA.

Training and Workforce Development Minister Simone McGurk confirmed on Saturday the Government was considering the plan.

“WA has got the best jobs market, lifestyle and economy in the nation — and we’re going to be putting the call out to residential construction tradies across the country to take up the opportunities on offer here in WA,” Ms McGurk said.

“We’re constantly looking at new ways we can work with industry to boost our building and construction workforce and get more boots on the ground so we can get homes built sooner.”

With the State’s population passing three million, housing supply remains a major problem and a shortage of tradies is compounding the issue.

The Government was unable to provide numbers on how many tradies were needed to fill the void in WA.

But as The Sunday Times revealed last month, experts are warning the State has little hope of getting on top of its building backlog due to high demand for specialised finishing trades such as tiling and cabinet-making.

Estimates suggest WA needs at least 120,000 skilled tradies in the next decade just to keep up, with plasterers, carpenters and painters also in demand.

Finding somewhere to live in WA has become hard because of huge demand for established properties and rentals fetching more than $600 a week on average. There are now more than 20,000 people on the Government’s social housing list.

Property Council WA executive director Nicola Brischetto said there needed to be “drastic intervention” to attack WA’s housing crisis.

“We need desperately need more tradies,” she told The Sunday Times.

“A $10,000 relocation incentive should make the decision to move west a no-brainer to any tradie contemplating moving west.

“The money will help with relocation costs and getting tradies established in their new homes.”

Gavin Hawkins, managing director of apartment developer Edge, said it was hard to attract builders and tradies to the residential sector because they were often lured to government work.

“I think most people in our space have trouble just getting a builder,” he said.

“Not many of those guys are operating in the residential space — quite often they are wanting government work or have been burnt over the last couple of years and are not really operating.”

But electrician and business owner Simon Manning said the incentive plan sounded like another band-aid solution for the housing crisis.

“We can’t keep up with demand for housing, but this doesn’t seem like a solution,” he said.

“It’s a short-term incentive to bring people over who don’t live here. How many of those people are going to stay here in WA?

“It’s a lot to ask of someone. If you’re going to move your entire life, $10,000 isn’t going to do a lot.

“It might cover the moving costs, but you still have to find a house in the middle of a housing crisis and start again.

“This will only put more demand on the system, with more people needing housing.”

Ms Brischetto — who had also moved to Perth with her family from the east coast — said State construction visa subsidy programs were welcome but WA was limited by Federal policies capping skilled migration.

“Building on that policy by offering incentives to tradies from interstate and New Zealand will maximise our chances of making a real impact on labour shortages,” she said.

“There’s also no end in sight for the high demand of new homes. Tradies moving to the State can be assured there’s a long-term pipeline of work on offer.”

The Federal Government has set a national target of 1.2 million new homes over the next five years.

Housing Industry Association boss Michael McGowan said on Saturday new home builds were increasing — but he acknowledged a shortage of tradies was a major obstacle.

“The greatest challenge to reaching this target is the volume of builders and our skilled trade base,” he said.

“Dramatically boosting this workforce stabilises cost pressures, reduces construction times and makes more medium and high-density projects viable to commence construction.

“Incentivising interstate trades is a key lever that the State Government should be looking to pull to dramatically increase the size of the residential construction industry.

“Skilled trades not only improve the productivity of the current workforce but are likely to host apprentices and help development WA’s talent for the future.”

Mr Manning and Mr Hawkins said the broader challenge was attracting and retaining quality tradespeople.

“The money would be better spent with employers to incentivise them to bring people over or maybe a combination of both,” Mr Manning said.

“Employers will need to be incentivised to employ these people over locals. We prefer locals because a local is more likely to stick around and the money is more likely to stay within our own economy.

Mr Hawkins added: “There is a serious shortage in certain trades like in walls and ceilings, electricians, structure and concreting.

“Again, they cross over into government infrastructure work.”

Mr Manning said the WA Government should target qualified tradespeople in the mining industry.

“As business owners, we can find plenty of tradespeople but finding good ones is the problem. Half of them don’t care or don’t rock up when you ask them to, so I think that’s a big part of the issue too.”