We must fix Australia’s flawed skilled migration system

A BETTER functioning skilled migration system is necessary to ease Australia’s housing malaise, according to the Master Builders Association.

Melissa Byrne, Master Builders Association national director of policy and legal, said Australia’s construction industry is facing a workforce crisis that is structural, not cyclical.

“Apprenticeship commencements are down 3.9 per cent between 2024 and 2025,” Byrne said.

“While completions have improved 18 per cent over the year to March 2026, more are quitting during their apprenticeship than completing.

“At the same time, our workforce is ageing and unemployment sits at around four per cent, meaning there is no latent domestic pool to draw on.

“Against this backdrop, governments have committed to delivering 1.2 million homes under the National Housing Accord.

“Our workforce blueprint projects a worker shortage of 935,600 by 2035.

“We are currently 141,000 workers short. These numbers cannot be reconciled with current demand for building and construction work or domestic training trajectories.”

Byrne said domestic reform is essential but, even under optimistic assumptions, it takes two to four years before a new apprentice can become a qualified tradesperson.

“We need a working skilled migration pathway now that works as a bridge, as it does in other countries, while domestic apprenticeship reforms come online,” Byrne said.

“The current system is not delivering for construction.

“As of September 2025, around 7040 skilled visa holders were working in core construction trade occupations nationally.

“That is a number wholly inconsistent with the scale of this challenge.”

At the same time, an estimated 18,400 permanent migrants already living in Australia hold building and construction qualifications but are working below their skill level, blocked by slow, costly and fragmented skills recognition and licensing arrangements, Byrne said.

“Properly recognising their skills could mean an extra 2.4 homes per skilled migrant or around 40,000 additional homes per year, offsetting increased demand on housing and helping to reach construction targets,” she added.

“While the migration system was not designed to exclude construction, its framework has evolved around the needs of larger, office-based employers.

“It does not reflect how construction works: 98 per cent are small businesses, project-based labour demand, state-specific licensing and schedules that cannot wait months for visa processing.”

Byrne said Master Builders is calling for a focused, practical package of reforms including:

• A dedicated construction skills pathway visa;
• expansion of the Pacific-Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme to include non-licensed trades;
• an international apprenticeship pathway;
• reform of the Skilling Australia Fund levy; and
• a National Skills Activation Program to bring the 18,400 under-utilised migrants already here into the workforce.

“Australia cannot meet its housing, infrastructure or productivity objectives without a better-functioning migration system,” she concluded.