Where Are They Now? Chris Walmsley Edition

WHERE ARE THEY NOW

From Award Winning Apprentice to Award Winning Homes

Chris Walmsley was the winner of the 3rd year Carpentry Apprentice Encouragement Award at the 2008 Master Builders ACT Apprentice Awards. Chris has gone on to start his own construction business, Walmsley Building Solutions. The decision to start his own business was a comfortable progression for Chris, “My parents and my sister all own their own business, so it was natural for me to do my own thing and do it my way.” Chris said.

But that wasn’t always his chosen career path, originally he enrolled in an engineering degree at university before finding his passion for carpentry. Winning the MBA’s Apprentice Encouragement Award in 2008 was the confirmation that Chris needed to know he was now on the right path, “I worked out after two years that university wasn’t for me and I started my apprenticeship when I was 20, when most of the guys were around 16. So, it was kind of nice to pick up that award with gratitude, and to have that sign that I made the right decision.”

Chris’ hard work and dedication to the craft paid off and in 2018, he won the Master Builders ACT Excellence Awards for the Renovation more than $450,000 category, “That was huge a moment for me, and it was a real honor to receive that recognition from the MBA and other members of the building industry,” he said.

Chris attributes his growing success to his dedicated team, “I’m just lucky that aside from my family helping out with the business, onsite I’ve got six full time employees who are all amazing, and contractors who are all as excited and committed as I am. I also have an awesome relationship with architects, which produces some really outstanding homes.”

Chris says he sees Walmsley Building Solutions continuing to be ‘innovative and open minded to different styles of building’. This includes Chris and his team participating in intensive training in Sydney to become qualified in passive house building. Passive houses are a more energy efficient building style that prioritises low energy costs.

In 2020, history repeated itself with Chris’ apprentice Andrew Van Dartel winning the MBA 2020 Apprentice of the Year. It was a nice full circle moment for Chris, “I’ve seen Andrew continue to excel in his own personal journey as well as in the building industry. And it’s nice feedback for me because he’s done his whole apprenticeship with me.” Andrew followed a similar path to Chris, originally starting out at university and then becoming a carpentry apprentice, older than most people in his year. But Chris’ success in the industry is a sign of good things to come for Andrew and future Master Builders ACT Apprentice Award winners. CHRIS WALMSLEY’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS WITH MASTER BUILDERS ACT

> 2007 Master Builders Training Awards Encouragement

Award for Stage 3

> 2016 Master Builders & CBUS Awards finalist for

Remodeling More Than $450,000 Finalist and a finalist in the Category Remodeling $250,000 - $450,000

> 2016 Master Builders and Cbus Excellence in Building

Awards winner of the Youth Participation Training Award

> 2018 Master Builders and Asset Construction Hire Building

Excellence Awards finalist for the Renovation/Extension $250K to $450K, Renovation/Extension more than $450K,

Custom Built Contract Home 250m2 to 350m2

> 2018 Master Builders and Asset Construction Hire

Building Excellence Awards winner for Renovation/

Extension more than $450K

Master Builders ACT Welcomes NEW APPRENTICES IN 2021

On Friday January 15, Master Builders ACT welcomed 15 new MBA employed apprentices who, over the coming years, will undertake training in various trades including carpentry and civil operations. During their first day, apprentices were fitted with PPE gear, introduced to trainers, Sam Reynolds-Smith, Malcolm Beer, Ben Scanlon and Scott Bird as well as Field Service Manager, Geoff Wood and Field officer, Jonathon Osbourne.

Meet the new MBA employed apprentices for 2021

> Gianni Ciuffetelli > Jarrod Costa > Kayne Critchlow > Benjamin Fitzpatrick > Angus Gallahar > Kayne Horan > Aaron Matterson > Nyan Mon > Kai Pennay > Michael Rodgers > Jack Stanford > Sebastian Tanner > Luke Bowring > Fraser Cousins > Arian Ghashghael Are you looking to make a career out of your passion for building?

We are still accepting apprenticeship applications for Master Builders ACT 2021 Apprenticeships.

Do you need an apprentice onsite?

MBA is currently recruiting host employers across residential and commercial sectors to support work placements of MBA apprentices in carpentry.

Hosting an MBA apprentice on your worksite is a great way to invest in the future of the building and construction industry and support peak workload without a long-term commitment.

Contact Master Builders ACT today on (02) 6175 5900 to find out more about becoming a Host Employer.

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MASTER BUILDERS DELIVERS ON FUTURE SKILLS FOR FUTURE JOBS

Master Builders ACT is the leading industry association in the ACT advocating and delivering on innovative programs to attract more women to trades. Over the past two years, Master Builders ACT has facilitated two women specific programs across building and civil construction disciplines.

This year a further two programs have been approved, funded by the ACT Government, Skills Canberra as part of the Future Skills for Future Jobs funding grant.

In December 2020, Master Builders ACT, together with Ginninderry SPARK, held the graduation for a second women in civil construction program. The nine-week program provided participants with five weeks theory and four weeks practical experience in the civil construction sector. Essential training including, White Card, Asbestos Awareness, Manual Handling and Bullying and Harassment, formed the first week of training for the participants. This was followed by seven core units from the RII30815 Certificate III in Civil Construction Plant Operations.

Practical placements were provided by eight civil contractors including: Guideline ACT, Woden Contractors, Huon Contractors, BASE, Capital Asphalt, Cord Civil, Complex Co and Canberra Contractors.

Master Builders ACT Commercial Director, Liz Nair said, ‘This program is not possible without the support and collaboration from our civil construction partners. They provide the onsite work placement and deliver the practical onsite training to support the units of competency delivered in the classroom.’

A further value add of this program was the emphasis on mental health and well-being. Partners including OzHelp and the Healthy Tradie project were able to facilitate this support to each participant over the nine weeks.

On conclusion of the Women in Civil program 84% of participants completed the program and each of them were offered full time employment with their civil contractor host. ‘This is a fantastic outcome and an increase on program completion and employment from the 2019 program,’ Liz Nair said.

‘I encourage more women to enter the building and construction industry. For participants interested in the next program, Women in Trades, please contact the Master Builders directly. This is a ten-week program specifically targeting women seeking a career as an apprentice carpenter, plumber, or electrician. Recruitment will commence shortly, with the program scheduled to commence, Monday, 19 April,’ Liz Nair said.

To find out about more exciting MBA events happening in the Women in Construction space, view the WIC calendar on page 63.

2021:

Good Things to Come for the ACT?

As we kick off 2021, the ACT economy looks to be in relatively good shape compared with most places - both inside and outside of Australia. Certainly, the trauma of the past 12 months has left its scars: at 3.9 per cent, the unemployment rate in the ACT has taken a turn for the worst during 2020, but it is still the lowest in Australia by a wide margin. The suspension of arrivals from overseas for most of 2020 has also deprived the ACT of its main engine of population and labour force growth.

Even so, there are not many places where the number of people with a job has risen over the past year, but fortunately Canberra is one of them. Latest figures show that the employment headcount here has increased by over 7,000 people over the year to November 2020. Reassuringly, this increase was almost exclusively accounted for by full-time jobs rather than part-time positions.

Along with the exceptional stimulus deployed by federal government in response to the pandemic, Canberra’s comparatively steady footing in 2020 was also a reflection of the largely successful containment of the virus locally during the year. The high share of public service activity in the local economy has also acted as a stabilising factor at a time when private sector demand has been burnt so badly.

Even though the general economic backdrop has been largely favourable, the recent performance of the ACT’s construction sector has been quite unimpressive. Latest data indicate that the volume of construction work done fell by some 8.7% during the September 2020 quarter compared with the previous quarter. Total building activity saw a reduction of 9.8 per cent over this period.

Non-residential building activity been the most badly affected by the pandemic, and activity here dropped by some 22.1% during the quarter. This outcome is not surprising: some segments of the economy have been severely curtailed by COVID-19 restrictions and new investment in these areas has ground to a halt.

Even outside of these areas, the atmosphere of uncertainty has been deeply damaging to business confidence and large-ticket capital investments. This includes building projects being cancelled, postponed and deferred. However, public sector projects have played a supportive role at this time: non-residential building work for the public sector saw a strong gain of 16.2% in the ACT during the September 2020 quarter, partially offsetting the 33.4% plunge in private sector nonresidential building activity over the same period.

A turnaround in the ACT’s non-residential building sector over the short term looks unlikely: latest official figures show that just 122 non-residential building jobs were approved over the three months to November 2020, a 35.4% drop on the same period in 2019. However, demand for industrial building jobs up well up on a year ago particularly with respect to factory and warehouse building. The local building industry is also benefitting from the uplift in NSW government-driven projects in the capital region outside the ACT, particularly in areas like education and health.

The reduction in engineering construction was more measured (-2.3 per cent), partially thanks to the significant share of infrastructure work accounted for by government projects. Moves to fast track the second stage of Canberra’s light rail project means that engineering construction activity can look forward to a busy time over the next couple of years.

During 2018, new home building starts across the ACT hit an all-time high of about 6,400 thanks to strong population growth and low mortgage interest rates. In recent years, the vast majority of new homes built in Canberra had been on the high-density side of the market. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, new home building activity here had been reversing quite quickly. While other parts of Australia have seen new detached house building rebound since the unveiling of HomeBuilder in early June 2020, the structure of residential building in the ACT with its strong dependence on high density means that the benefits here from HomeBuilder have been very limited so far. For example, over the three months to November 2020, the number of new home building approvals in the ACT was 25.9% down on the same time in 2019.

However, the HomeBuilder boom has not bypassed Canberra entirely: over the same period, the value of major home renovations approvals soared by 58.4% in the ACT, a pattern which has been replicated in most parts of the country.

SHANE GARRETT, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT MBA AUSTRALIA

Despite the fact that the building in the ACT has not yet fired up, the prospects for activity in our industry over the medium to long term look promising. Interest rates are set to stay at extremely low levels for a prolonged period. More importantly, the robust state of the ACT economy means that the local labour market will become a magnet for jobseekers migrating from those parts of Australia worst hit be the COVID-19 crisis. This effect is likely to boost demand in the rental market in Canberra and ultimately fuel further gains in new home building activity. Based on the latest building approvals, Master Builders Australia projects that new home building starts in the ACT will ease back to 4,176 during the 2020-21 financial year. The largely favourable economic backdrop means that activity is likely to climb fairly steadily over subsequent years as the chart below illustrates), and by 2024-25 we project that new home building starts in the ACT will reach about 5,480.

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0 Summary of latest Master Builder Australia Forecasts for New Dwelling Starts in the ACT (December 2020 forecast set)

5,062 6,200

5,005

4,176 4,725 5,104 5,294 5,483

2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25

WORKING FROM HOME ARRANGEMENTS AND SUBSEQUENT CHANGES TO MODERN AWARDS

By Malvin Khaira, Master Builders ACT Industrial Relations and Legal Adviser

COVID-19 is changing the employment landscape with working from home increasingly becoming the preferred working arrangement. The need to eliminate the risk of person to person transmission of the COVID-19 virus in the workplace, has led to extensive government directives and guidelines, primarily with respect to social distancing and hygiene at work. Many industries have resorted to complete or at least partial work from home arrangements, due to the pandemic.

In addition to government directives and guidelines, employment and industrial laws have also undergone necessary revamps to cater to challenges presented by the virus. Since the emergence of COVID-19, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) has seen amendments to allow for transitional provisions on a whole range of matters intended to assist industries impacted by the pandemic and to administer the employer and employee relationship in these unprecedented times. These changes are numerous, some of which include a reduction in the access period for enterprise agreement

COVID-19 is changing the employment landscape with working from home increasingly becoming the preferred working arrangement.

variations, the introduction of JobKeeper enabling directions and COVID-19 schedules in Modern Awards.

The COVID-19 schedules in Modern Awards promotes flexibility in administering the employment relationship and affords rights and obligations on matters such as hours of work, annual leave and pandemic leave. On 31 August 2020, the Fair Work Commission released a President’s statement in which it proposed a further draft Award flexibility schedule intended to promote discussion among employers and employees with respect to work from home arrangements. The draft provision allows for employers and employees to reach an agreement that balances personal and work responsibilities of the employee with the business needs of the employer. It should be noted that this flexibility schedule has not been implemented as of yet and it is only in draft form. The expectation is that it is used as a starting point for discussions between industrial parties with an interest in particular Modern Awards.

However, it is likely that this flexibility schedule would remain irrelevant to many industries and as such many industrial parties would not require any discussion or consultation. These are industries in which work from home arrangements would simply be unfeasible due to the nature of work required. An example of which is the construction industry. Although construction does encompass office-based jobs, the majority of work continues to occur on construction sites and therefore the presence of workers on site is unavoidable.

The finalisation and subsequent introduction of this flexibility provision would also signify the Fair Work Commission’s movement towards cementing the trend of working from home as part of permanent employment arrangements. The schedule would see employers finding it more difficult to unreasonably refuse an employee’s request to work from home. A refusal to let staff work from home, especially when it can be shown that such an arrangement was possible, could result in an employer being in breach of employment laws. There is likely to be more to come in this space, however, whilst the presence of human workers continues to be necessary in industries like construction, work from home arrangements would appear inapplicable and therefore irrelevant.

Managing Buildings Better

ACT Chief Planner, Ben Ponton

Look around Canberra and you’ll see how much the city has grown over the years. Apartment and townhouse living has changed the skyline and some neighbourhoods, in the inner-city ,centres and new estates.

Now, the laws governing unit title buildings have also changed, to make it fairer for people who live and work in buildings. These legislative changes clarify the rights and responsibilities of developers, owners corporations, residents and business owners in all unit title buildings in the Territory, including mixed-use developments. Some of these changes are already in effect, with others to be introduced from July 2021.

For builders and developers, the biggest impacts flow from new arrangements for managing multi-use buildings, extra requirements to keep buyers and owners corporations informed, more flexibility around contribution levies and unit plan rules, and changes to voting rules around building defects.

For new multi-use buildings which include a units plan, developers will need to develop a “Building Management Statement” that outlines how issues such as shared facilities and easements will be jointly managed by the owners of different leases. Developers of new multi-lease buildings with at least one units plan have until July 2021 to develop such a statement for their complex. Any application to register a units plan after this date can’t be assessed if it doesn’t include the statement.

For units sold off the plan, developers will need to provide a new “disclosure statement” to buyers as part of the contract of sale from July 2021. This applies to off the plan unit sales where no contracts have been issued prior to 1 July 2021.

The disclosure statement must provide information about: > Proposed levies > Maintenance and mixed uses > The progress of the development It will need to be updated if there are any significant changes to the development or unit, giving buyers clearer rights to terminate a contract in such cases.

For new unit plans, developers will also need to give owners corporations more detail about the future upkeep of their building. From 1 November 2020, developers must present an initial maintenance plan for a new complex at the owners corporation’s first annual general meeting (AGM). The maintenance plan must detail the expected maintenance tasks and costs and include an asset register, warranties, manuals and contact details for manufacturers and installers.

As a safeguard, developers, builders and other parties involved in a development are, in most cases, no longer allowed to vote on matters related to building defects.

However, developers have more flexibility under the reforms in how they set up new unit plans. They can propose different ways of calculating contribution levies and tailor rules for running a new units plan in a way that makes sense for a development. Previously, a one-size-fits-all set of rules applied to all new unit plans, leaving little room for flexibility or innovation. Developers now also have a means of changing their rules for existing units plan during the “developer control period”, if unforeseen circumstances arise. Existing owners corporations can now tailor their levies and rules too.

These reforms draw on lessons learned in other jurisdictions as well as input from an active industry and community consultative group. Our thanks go to Master Builders ACT for providing the voices of home builders as part of this consultation process. Learn more on the ACT Governments Initial Package of Reforms webpage.

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Contact Infinite Joinery Email: paul@infinitejoinery.com.au Phone: (02) 6262 2565 Kraftworks is local company specialising in architectural carpentry and metal fabrication. Drawing on a multidisciplinary background, owner Aaron Fitzpatrick and his team design and produce a broad range of contemporary custom products, furniture and fittings for residential and commercial projects.

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