WA’s housing crisis is continuing to cause great hardship for many Western Australian families, with the news of yet another builder collapse further impacting the industry.
Concerns from WA’s industry regulator Building and Energy raised in media reports today about the financial health of Modco Residential, and the collapse of commercial and residential builder Slatter Group reported yesterday, show that this crisis is worsening.
“While the WA Labor Party was busy doing deals with the unions over how much control they’ll get in the new government, yet another builder went into liquidation yesterday,” Shadow Housing Steve Martin said.
“Western Australians deserve a government that is wholly focussed on their priorities and housing should be top of the list.
“Mark McGowan said the building and housing crisis was the result of a strong economy and there was nothing much he could do about it.
“The incoming Premier Roger Cook should make it his first order of business to help Western Australians struggling to find an affordable rental or waiting for a house to be built and hoping their builder won’t go under.
“People suffering in this housing crisis have little interest in which union voted for who in the Labor leadership battle or what deals are being done to assign Cabinet positions.
“They want to know what is being done to fix the housing mess created by the Labor Government over the past six years?”
The Government was made aware of issues in the building industry when the Building Confidence report was published in 2018.
“Since then, the McGowan Government dragged its feet on implementing key reforms detailed in the report, including the recommendation for mandatory inspections,” Mr Martin said.
“This is a government that is big on talk and announcements but has no shown no urgency in implementing reforms or other measures that will help address the multiple crises impacting the housing sector.
“Western Australia small businesses, tradies and home builders are being caught up in the housing crisis and the WA Government has been slow to react.”
