Real Estate THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2020 FROM COAST TO
COUNTRY
WWW.TWEEDVALLEYWEEKLY.NET.AU
Border lockdown puts pressure on construction industry By Jo Kennett
A BUILDING industry representative says the Tweed Shire construction industry will “grind to a halt” before the end of the month, unless border restrictions for construction workers are changed. Master Builders President of the Tweed Division, Peter Leotta, said he had been in urgent discussions with builders in the area and the situation was dire. “It will be approximately one and a half weeks before every builder in the Northern Rivers comes to a complete halt based on the fact they have hit a roadblock from a supplier or trade,” Mr Leotta said. “I have been inundated with calls with builders telling me they could potentially only trade for three weeks before they go broke. “There are trades workers which are halfway through completion and can’t get to a job to complete because, for instance, a painter in Tugun can’t get to his job in Ballina to finish painting.” Mr Leotta said between Friday afternoon and Monday morning,
August 10, he had 83 calls from distressed workers. “Some of them have been in tears and it’s just now that the severity of the situation is becoming understood. “This is in a time when the building industry is already doing it tough and it is the main economic drive in NSW and Queensland. “There has not been one site to case transmission on a construction site anywhere in Australia. “We are calling to be classified as an essential service which we were before.” Mr Leotta said Tweed Shire workers were dependent on work further south or north. “The Tweed Coast has only 31 homes under construction, but we have 382 registered builders in the region and that isn’t taking into account the nearly 800 registered tradesmen,” he said. “If a builder goes to Ballina they can’t get a specialty tradesman or supplies which affects all their other tradesmen. “Then we have homeowners balancing mortgages and rents while they wait for their homes to be built which will potentially
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have a negative impact on their financial business.” In the short time The Weekly spoke to Mr Leotta on Monday, he missed another 32 calls and said the issue would mean that some people applying for the federal HomeBuilder scheme would not make the cutoff date. “It’s dire,” he said. “The measures the building industry has put into place have worked, they have cut numbers on site and we have effectively been able to protect our industry and workers. “Now we are being hindered for political gain by a premier who is allowing people in the industry to suffer without any consultation.” Mr Leotta has written to all Northern Rivers councils and made a formal submission to the Queensland Premier and Queensland Health. “(Cr) Chris Cherry has been wonderful, she is a breath of fresh air,” he said. “We have also pushed this with Queensland Master Builders to raise this as a concern and to seek specifically to have us regarded as essential activity.”
Tweed construction could stall due to COVID-19
Mr Leotta said it was concerning that some businesses would not survive. “There are very serious mental health concerns with this and that becomes increasingly challenged when financial hardship is involved,” he said. “It takes away any hope for our industry. “Our industry has always rested on the foundation of, ‘we go where the work is’, but so many of our community suffer in silence and this will add to the negative effect on the mental health of many trades, many builders and many suppliers locally.” Tweed Coast plumber Drew Lanston said if people live on the Tweed Coast and have to work across the border, they can’t go past Pottsville.
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“That makes it really hard,” Mr Lanston said. “We have work in Yamba and we work on the Goldy so we just have to work in the bubble I guess, but it makes it hard. “We have work and will go about it as planned, but until we hear more we don’t know what’s in store. “A lot of people don’t know what’s going on and it will add 100 per cent to people’s stress.” If you are experiencing distress please reach out and contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 (online chats are available) or Lifeline on 13 11 14 with text chats available on 0477 13 11 14.
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