Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Master Builders CEO Ben Carter says there are plans to recruit 600 skilled workers from overseas for the NT’s construction industry

Transcript

Master Builders CEO Ben Carter says there are plans to recruit 600 skilled workers from overseas for the NT’s construction industry · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But as we've learned, the Northern Territory Government and Master
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  Speaker 1: Builders are going to be partnering to bring six hundred
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  Speaker 1: skilled overseas workers into the Northern Territory in the coming
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  Speaker 1: months to help drive the construction sector. Now, the governments
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  Speaker 1: say that they're also throwing their support behind master Builders
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  Speaker 1: Born to Build program, which sets a target of growing
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory construction sector by five thousand workers. Now
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  Speaker 1: joining me in the studio to tell us more about
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  Speaker 1: this is Ben Carter, the new CEO of Master Builders
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  Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory. Good morning to you, Ben.
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  Speaker 2: Get okay here you're going yeah, really.
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  Speaker 1: Well, great to have you in the studio. Ben House's
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  Speaker 1: planned to bring this six hundred skilled workers from overseas
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  Speaker 1: going to work.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Katie, the first thing to recognize is that we
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  Speaker 3: have a chronic shortage of workers here right now, so
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  Speaker 3: this is going to hold back projects, put projects at risk.
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  Speaker 3: Our members are chronically short of workers. Is a severe
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  Speaker 3: shortage of skilled workers, and that's why we're partnering with
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  Speaker 3: the NC government to go overseas to try and find
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  Speaker 3: some We've matched them. The reason we're going to the
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  Speaker 3: Philippines and India is because we've matched them those markets
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  Speaker 3: to the skills that we need and our market testing
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  Speaker 3: of our members are telling us that's where we need
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  Speaker 3: to go.
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  Speaker 1: So Ben, with your members, like, how big an impact
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  Speaker 1: is that shortage of workers and skill workers having on
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  Speaker 1: the industry right now in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Well, at the moment, we're really at capacity.
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  Speaker 3: There's a strong pipeline of work right now from the
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  Speaker 3: federal government and the territory government. We've just seen in
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  Speaker 3: the last federal budget, which is a couple of weeks ago,
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  Speaker 3: that there's new infrastructure funding. So there's a strong pipeline
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  Speaker 3: of work which is adding even more pressure to the
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  Speaker 3: need for workers. So if we don't get some more,
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  Speaker 3: if we don't scoop them up, then we're also going
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  Speaker 3: to have a problem. And the reality is we're not
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  Speaker 3: getting them from down south anymore. There's a shortage of
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  Speaker 3: workers nationally and there's just not a market down south
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  Speaker 3: we can go and grab them from as we have
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  Speaker 3: done in the past up here. So that's why we're
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  Speaker 3: looking overseas.
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  Speaker 1: Ben, I know whenever I have these discussions. Last week,
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  Speaker 1: for example, we're talking to hospitality into about a similar initiative.
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  Speaker 1: Whenever we have these discussions, there is always people listening
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  Speaker 1: saying why aren't we growing our own or why don't
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  Speaker 1: we employ people that are already here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 3: It's a really good point, Katie, and something that we
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  Speaker 3: always say in our industries. We're about training locals and
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  Speaker 3: creating opportunities for locals, but we.
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  Speaker 2: Need to meet the immediate needs as well.
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  Speaker 3: So we're partnering with the Anti Government for this overseas
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  Speaker 3: recruitment exposed and that's obviously meeting our immediate needs and
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  Speaker 3: well done to the Anti Government for having the foresight
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  Speaker 3: to support us on that. We're partnering with the Chamber
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  Speaker 3: and the Minerals Council, so it's a really strong consortium,
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  Speaker 3: the two big industries and the Territory as well as
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  Speaker 3: the Chamber combining to deliver that outcome. But Master Builder
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  Speaker 3: is Born to Build initiative which the government is trying
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  Speaker 3: to support behind on Friday with Minister Kirby. What that's
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  Speaker 3: about is about training locals for the medium term as well.
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  Speaker 3: So we want to create a situation where we're meeting
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  Speaker 3: the immediate needs of our members and construction sector now,
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  Speaker 3: but also training locals and creating up and creating opportunities
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  Speaker 3: in the near term. And it's really important, Katie, because
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  Speaker 3: if you have a strong construction industry, you have a
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  Speaker 3: strong territory economy. So it's really important that you addrest
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  Speaker 3: those both immediate needs and longer term needs via Born
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  Speaker 3: to Build, which has got those initiatives going for it.
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  Speaker 3: So we're really encouraged.
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  Speaker 1: Ben. How are you going to attract them here to
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, Like, what's the process going to be
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  Speaker 1: and how do you sell the territory to them?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's really important.
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  Speaker 3: The money that the NT government is funding is to
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  Speaker 3: use is about generating interest in those markets. So it's
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  Speaker 3: about creating and promoting the opportunities of really strong careers
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  Speaker 3: and rewarding careers in the territory and in the construction industry,
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  Speaker 3: we're one of the higher paid trades, so there's no
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  Speaker 3: issue with that. We're also pursuing employers sponsored visas, not
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  Speaker 3: the short term four to five seven type visas. We're
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  Speaker 3: after the sort of the longer term family visas, which
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  Speaker 3: means they can stay a bit longer and also have
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  Speaker 3: a pathway to citizenship and permanent residency at the end.
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  Speaker 3: So we're wanting to create communities as well so that
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  Speaker 3: we don't have this boom bus shortage going forward. That's
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  Speaker 3: what it's really targeted at. And again Born to Build
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  Speaker 3: is really about that. It's about creating a sustainable industry
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  Speaker 3: and boosting the community.
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  Speaker 1: Then six hundred skilled workers in the first instance as
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  Speaker 1: part of you know what you're doing right now with
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory government, where on earth are they going
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  Speaker 1: to live?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we know that that housing is a big problem
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  Speaker 3: at the moment in the territory and we're obviously urging
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  Speaker 3: the government to release more land.
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  Speaker 2: CAD.
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  Speaker 3: It's all about land. It's no different from anywhere else
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  Speaker 3: in Australia either. It's about land. We need to have
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  Speaker 3: tidal land land released by the territory government so that
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  Speaker 3: we can build more homes for Territorians right now but
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  Speaker 3: also into the future. And again if we don't have
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  Speaker 3: that land, it's going to be really hard to have it.
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  Speaker 3: To have that create that community going forward, we want
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  Speaker 3: to bring families, we want to create counstain construction workforce.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a strong pipeline of work coming for the
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  Speaker 3: next five years. We hope, and we need we need
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  Speaker 3: to be able to house those workers.
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  Speaker 2: So it's about land and it's about land release.
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  Speaker 1: I mean that land release and obviously building. It is
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  Speaker 1: all a bit longer term though. In the first instance,
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  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that you need these six hundred skilled workers
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  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. So where would they live in the first instance.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there is housing. There is some housing available. It's
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  Speaker 3: not like there's no there's no housing at all. And
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  Speaker 3: it also depends on whereabouts and where those workers are going.
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  Speaker 3: So there is there is land and some housing available.
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  Speaker 3: But we can if you can release land, we can
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  Speaker 3: build very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think the government's releasing that land quickly enough?
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  Speaker 3: I think the government's aware of the problem and they're
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  Speaker 3: working constructively to try and find solutions, but it can
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  Speaker 3: never be quick enough.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and you know, look, I know that that housing
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  Speaker 1: is something that we sort of hear right across the
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  Speaker 1: board from all different industries and people saying that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: they'd love to move to the territory, but it's so
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  Speaker 1: expensive to find a place, or they can't find a place,
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  Speaker 1: or you know, the rental is so high. So I
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  Speaker 1: know that it is something that's top of mind. For
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  Speaker 1: a lot of territorians at the moment, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: let alone people coming from interstate.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: The thing everyone has to realize in the territory, I
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  Speaker 3: think is where at the cusp of.
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  Speaker 2: A really big opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: There's lots of work coming with the federal government and
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  Speaker 3: its strategies around defense. The territory and Darwin in particular
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  Speaker 3: are in a really good space going forward.
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  Speaker 2: But we have to get our ducks in a row.
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  Speaker 2: And it's not going to work for us.
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  Speaker 3: If we ignore some of these problems or go slow
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  Speaker 3: and the government is working. The government is aware of
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  Speaker 3: it and they are aware of the vulnerabilities. And I
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  Speaker 3: think it's also good opportunity for the government to work
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  Speaker 3: with the federal government given that they're aligned, and to
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  Speaker 3: resolve some of these problems.
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  Speaker 1: Now ben with the workforce, with that six hundred skilled
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  Speaker 1: overseas workers, there will be people questioning why is the
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  Speaker 1: government paying or why is the government contributing to these
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't it be something that businesses pay for themselves.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, and businesses are paying k This is not a
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  Speaker 3: government holiday for anybody. What this is about is the
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  Speaker 3: government is paying some of the costs to promote and
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  Speaker 3: to run the exposed overseas, so we were going to India.
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  Speaker 3: In the Philippines, the NTG money will be around running
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  Speaker 3: the exposed and promoting the exposed and and employing some
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  Speaker 3: of the very temporary recruitment staff there who are going
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  Speaker 3: to vet the new employees, and employers are paying the rest.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, it's tens of thousands of money dollars
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  Speaker 3: it will cost to process visas, those sorts of things.
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  Speaker 3: That's all been paid to employers and if they want
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  Speaker 3: to go, because they have that option to go in person,
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  Speaker 3: then they can go. The beauty of this program KDI
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  Speaker 3: is that it's an end to end recruitment process, a
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  Speaker 3: really innovative pilot project that were with the Minerals Counselor
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  Speaker 3: and the Chamber have come up with where basically, we
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  Speaker 3: promote to a lot of pre promotion in country, as
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  Speaker 3: they say, in those countries, to get to generate the
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  Speaker 3: interest by the population. Then we do the pre vetting
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  Speaker 3: so that there's not a waste of time where people
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  Speaker 3: real skills don't match the real requirements. We've done market
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  Speaker 3: testing with our employees so we know the exactly the
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  Speaker 3: skills and.
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  Speaker 2: Qualifications they require.
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  Speaker 3: We've picked those markets because they're strongly aligned with our
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  Speaker 3: Australian way of building and skills. And then we help
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  Speaker 3: them with processing those visas, which the employers pay for
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  Speaker 3: again you know, twenty five thousand up, which is what
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  Speaker 3: they would pay anyway. And then we provide support to
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  Speaker 3: the employer and employees to settle and have cultural awareness.
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  Speaker 3: And we will be pursuing the Freedom Government around helping
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  Speaker 3: us to try and speed up the issue of the visas,
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  Speaker 3: the backlog.
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  Speaker 2: But particularly also we need all of us to get
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  Speaker 2: our heads.
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  Speaker 3: Around the fact that we need to get out of
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  Speaker 3: this boom and bust of five FO type mentality. It's
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  Speaker 3: incumbent upon not just not just fireflight workers, but it's
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  Speaker 3: incumbent upon territorians to.
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  Speaker 2: Get that out of their heads as well.
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  Speaker 3: And we need to provide a community and liveability and amenity,
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  Speaker 3: and we want to help the federal We want to
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  Speaker 3: pursue the Federal government to help us with those family
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  Speaker 3: sponsored visas employed sponsored visas rather so that they can
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  Speaker 3: come for three or four years and they have a
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  Speaker 3: pathway to permanent residency at the end.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and look if we can get people to stay
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  Speaker 1: here long term. I think that that is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's the end goal, really, isn't it to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that they're contributing to the community, they're part of the community,
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  Speaker 1: and they're staying long term. And yeah, you hit the
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  Speaker 1: nail on the head there though as well in terms
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  Speaker 1: of getting those visas process, because that's been one of
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  Speaker 1: the big criticisms, hasn't it How long that takes?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And look at the good thing is the federal
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  Speaker 3: government has made some really good moves. They got rid
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  Speaker 3: of the system they had during COVID for the skills visas,
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  Speaker 3: so they're now scrap that and they're focused now on
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  Speaker 3: bringing people and on speeding up those visa requirements.
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  Speaker 2: But it's a huge backlog, but they are working on it.
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  Speaker 3: But they need to go fast if they can, and
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  Speaker 3: again help us to target the right visas to get
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  Speaker 3: them here. So we want to get those employees sponsored
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  Speaker 3: longer term and with a way that they can bring
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  Speaker 3: their family and have that permanent regency pathway because that's
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  Speaker 3: what's going to encourage people to come and to stay
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  Speaker 3: and contribute.
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  Speaker 1: Well. Ben Carter, the CEO of Master Builders here in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, good to catch up with you. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning. Thank you