Billion dollar building boom in the pipeline

A BUOYANT construction industry taking on more apprentices was a reflection of the state’s booming economy, Building and Construction minister Elise Archer said.

Making a visit to a busy building site in Sandy Bay yesterday, Ms Archer said new data showed Tasmania was leading the nation with more apprentices and trainees.

Over the year to March 2019, Tasmanian trade apprenticeships have surged by 10.4 per cent, despite the national rate of trade apprenticeships declining by 0.6 per cent.

“We are bucking the trend in terms of our apprenticeships and traineeships,” Ms Archer said. “We have the strongest economic growth out of all of the states and territories in Australia. This comes as no accident — it’s due to the Government’s policies and strong management of our budget.”

Master Builders Tasmania executive director Matthew Pollock said the industry was enjoying a period of sustained — and sustainable — growth.

“What’s encouraging is we’ve seen over the last 12 months growth across all three sectors of the construction industry,” he said.

“Over the financial year 2019, we built almost 3000 additional houses, delivered more than $800 million in commercial work and over $1.5 billion dollars in civil and engineering.

“Looking forward, there’s certainty there as well. We see a very strong pipeline of work.

“We expect to see growth of close to 20 per cent in the value of construction work over the next 12 months, and the value of that work to surpass a billion dollars.”

In State Parliament yesterday, Treasurer Peter Gutwein expressed his delighting with the economic growth figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

“Yesterday’s result marks the first time in 15 years that Tasmania’s economic growth rate has outstripped that of all the other states and territories on a financial year basis,” he said.

“This result is also the first time in more than a quarter of a century that Tasmania’s growth has more than tripled that of the nation’s power house economy, New South Wales, on a financial year basis.

“We have worked very hard in terms of our long-term plan.

“We have confidence in our economy, and now Tasmania once again leads the country in confidence across our business sector. That confidence is leading to investment. Importantly, that investment is leading to jobs — 13,000 more jobs under this government.”