There are renewed calls for more women to join the construction sector, to help address Australia’s housing crisis. A national skills shortage is creating long delays and adding to the cost of building a new home, according to the Master Builders Association.
Kim Taylor is using precision tools to trim a door at a property north of Sydney. It’s a routine task for the 43-year-old qualified carpenter, who began training eight years ago. “I am very proud. I'm qualified now and running sites,” she says. “I started when was 36 and qualified when I was 41, that was two years ago. So, I started very late.
If we do not resolve these shortages, then we're simply not going to house all of the population of Australia. “However, it is really concerning that the cost of a new home is nearly 40 per cent higher than it was pre-Covid. "We know this is predominantly around shortages of labour which is also leading to long delays. “Prior to Covid, building a detached home took on average around nine months.