PAYWALL:

The Master Builders proposal for a priority migration pathway for construction apprentices is a way to target the migration program to fill genuine skills gaps.

The Albanese government’s decision to delay the release of its immigration policy came down, in part, to the economic cost of slashing migration numbers. It underscores how deeply intertwined Australia’s immigration policy is with prosperity.

Former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson cautioned last week that sharp cuts to migration would drag on an already fragile economy. Parkinson, who chaired the 2023 review of Australia’s migration program, has urged the Albanese government to pivot the system towards attracting and selecting people who can contribute to Australia, rather than focusing on temporary, low-skilled workers.

A real-life example of that tension is unfolding over construction work for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. Grappling with tight timeframes, ambitious housing and hotel targets and labour shortages, Master Builders Australia is pushing for a priority migration pathway for construction apprentices. That is a targeted way to fill skills shortages, as opposed to using migration to add a few percentage points to economic growth without undertaking the productivity-enhancing economic reforms needed to lift declining per-capita living standards.

According to The Australian Financial Review’s Queensland reporter Brittney Levinson, the lobby group has called for a dedicated apprentice visa pathway that allows foreign students to undertake trade apprenticeships that are currently reserved for Australian citizens and permanent residents. Master Builders Australia has long championed a specialised migration stream that explicitly recognises construction as a national priority sector.

Queensland is forecast to suffer a 46,000-person shortfall in construction workers by mid-2028, according to analysis by project advisory firm WT in February. The decision to spread the Olympic Games venues around the state is ramping up building costs and leaving other critical infrastructure projects short of workers.

“Local apprenticeships have perilously low completion rates, in part due to poor financial incentives.”

Predictably, the Queensland Council of Unions opposes the Master Builders’ proposal on the basis that an influx of skilled foreign tradies threatens the prospect of higher wages and better conditions for blue-collar workers and undermines job opportunities for local apprentices.

QCU also argues it puts further pressure on the state’s housing, hospitals and public services and creates a new class of workers “vulnerable to exploitation”. It’s a reversion to protectionist orthodoxy at the time of Federation, which was strongly backed by a labour movement founded on improving pay and conditions for union members.

QCU general secretary Jacqueline King’s insistence that “Queenslanders should be able to access Queensland jobs and Queensland training opportunities in the first instance” leans into Pauline Hanson’s anti-immigration rhetoric. It’s a stance that ignores the economic realities of a state’s skilled trades shortage.

Foreign tradies are the very people who would help build the infrastructure and housing projects needed to accommodate a growing population and ease the concerns of local Queenslanders. Skilled migration also has a role to play in offsetting the diminishing apprenticeship completion rates, which are perilously low, in part due to poor financial incentives.

Boosting skilled migrant workers in construction and specialised trades would generate a substantial fiscal dividend for the Australian community. Treasury research published in 2021 found most primary skilled migrants paid substantially more in taxes over their lifetimes than they received in government services and welfare. Primary holders of permanent employer-sponsored visas were estimated to contribute a net $557,000 to the budget over their lives, while skilled independent visa holders contributed a net $386,000.

The government should focus on finding ways to ensure that more Australians who embark on apprenticeships actually complete them. The most common reasons apprentices quit are interpersonal issues with their employer, lack of training, poor working conditions and pay. The government has sought to curb lower wages via incentives as part of its national review into the apprenticeship system. While the government’s $10,000 Key Apprenticeship Program attempts to cushion low wages, throwing cash at the pipeline only goes so far.

Despite the Albanese government’s $1.5 billion injection into fee-free TAFE, barely a third of students have completed their qualifications. Taxpayers deserve a real return on investment. That means focusing not just on initial enrolments but on overcoming the barriers to course completion.

The Master Builders proposal is a way to target the migration program to fill genuine skills gaps in the construction industry. Many international students stay on after earning their degrees and use the student visa as a gateway to Australia’s workforce. Extending a similar pathway to trade apprenticeships is a commonsense move given how vital construction is to the broader economy.

The current scarcity of skilled workers is partly due to a large swath of tradespeople retiring over the past decade while too few apprentices have taken their place. It’s a prime reason construction costs have risen dramatically and put upward pressure on residential housing prices.

$40,000 wiped off the value of the average house over winter

Property values are falling in almost every suburb in the country, with $40,000 wiped from the median value of the nation’s homes through winter as high interest rates, the federal government’s budget tax changes and low levels of affordability crunch the entire market.

Figures released by Cotality show the value of 93 per cent of all properties in capital city suburbs fell during winter, double the proportion that had gone backwards during autumn, creating an economic problem for the Reserve Bank and a political issue for the Albanese government.

Across the nation’s capital cities, dwelling values dropped by 1.1 per cent in August to be down by 3.7 per cent over the past three months. The median value slipped to $990,394 compared to the $1.03 million recorded at the start of winter.

Regional values are also falling, down by 0.4 per cent last month to be 1.2 per cent lower through the quarter.

The downturn is being driven by Sydney, where dwelling values dropped by 1.4 per cent in August to be down by a nation-leading 4.7 per cent through winter. The city’s median house value dropped by 1.8 per cent last month, taking it below $1.5 million for the first time in more than a year.

Values fell in every capital city bar Darwin, easing by 1.1 per cent in Melbourne and Canberra, 1 per cent in Brisbane, 0.8 per cent in Adelaide and Perth and by 0.2 per cent in Hobart.

Sydney and Melbourne values are down by 4.6 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively, from August last year. By contrast, values are still 15.6 per cent higher in Perth, by 14.6 per cent in Darwin and 10.8 per cent in Brisbane.

The nation’s property slowdown accelerated after Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions in the May budget.

The government has said its changes are aimed at improving housing affordability for young Australians. Despite the drop in values this year, every city bar Melbourne is still up on where it was five years ago while values in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are more than double their 2016 levels.

But it has faced an increasingly strident political attack over the fallout from the tax changes, with the Coalition accusing the government of trying to “destroy” the wealth of Australians held in their homes.

House values, particularly among the most expensive properties, are falling fastest and are down by 3.3 per cent so far this year. By contrast, the values of units and apartments have slipped by 1.8 per cent through 2026.

Cotality research director Tim Lawless said values had now fallen for five consecutive months to sit 3.6 per cent below their peak in March.

He said demand across the entire market was falling while the number of homes up for sale was 24 per cent up on the same point last year.

“What started as a more concentrated easing across higher-value segments has now become a much more generalised softening, with the vast majority of capital city suburbs recording some level of decline,” he said.

“The shift in selling conditions means buyers are generally facing less competition, while vendors are having to be more realistic on price as stock levels rise and days on market extend.”

Property prices started to slow in February when the Reserve Bank delivered the first of three interest rate hikes so far this year. Markets believe the bank will push the cash rate to 4.6 per cent by November to deal with high inflation.

The bank’s efforts to curb inflation have been challenged by the fallout from the war against Iran, with oil prices pushing up above the $US90 a barrel on Monday. The International Energy Agency warned global oil supply was likely to be down 4.3 million barrels a day this year with current inventories being drawn down “at a rapid pace”.

Figures released on Monday by the country’s prudential regulator showed growth in the value of investor mortgages held by the Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB and Westpac banks slowed through July in further confirmation that the budget changes have pushed many investors out of the property market.

Lawless noted that at the start of the slowdown in the market, values for low-priced homes – dominated by first home buyers – had held up. But even this sector was now in decline, with the situation not likely to improve through the spring selling season.

“Premium markets are still generally recording weaker conditions, but lower-priced housing is becoming less insulated as affordability pressures and softer demand weigh more evenly across the market,” he said.

“Even though values have already moved lower, the combination of sticky inflation, the prospect of higher rates and ongoing pressure on household budgets suggests demand is likely to remain subdued through spring.”

There are signs the rental market is easing, despite it remaining historically tight. The rental vacancy rate eased to 1.9 per cent, its highest level since January last year.

Asking rents, however, have climbed by 5.7 per cent over the past 12 months. They are now 39 per cent, or about $200 a week, up over the past five years.

NSW will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to report cases of people living with motor neurone disease, with the Minns Labor Government making it a notifiable condition from 1 September 2026.

A new fleet of hybrid trains that can run on suburban and country tracks would finally deliver a long-promised boost to rail services for people living in Melbourne’s booming west under a $1.7 billion public transport pitch to be announced by the Coalition.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson will on Tuesday promise that bi-mode trains similar to those already in use in NSW and South Australia would bring commuters living along the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines onto a metropolitan system years before Labor’s promised electrification of those lines.

The revised western rail plan, which comes eight years after the Andrews government pledged to electrify outer-suburban lines in Melbourne’s fastest-growing population corridor, promises to deliver 25 new trains within the next term of parliament.
Bi-mode trains, which have been used for a decade in Europe, access overhead power lines while on suburban tracks and switch to a secondary diesel or battery-powered source of energy when on country tracks.

Labor’s electrification program, which was promised at both the 2018 and 2022 state elections, has been delayed until after a new station is built at Sunshine, and suburban, country and freight services are separated at the major rail junction. The $4 billion station works are not due to be completed until 2030. The Carroll government will open an upgraded Melton Station on Tuesday.
Wilson said that while a Coalition government would remain committed to electrifying the two lines, hybrid trains would deliver better services more quickly to suburbs where peak-hour commuters are being left stranded on platforms because of jam-packed trains.
“Labor has twice promised and twice failed to deliver the modern train services communities across Melton and Wyndham Vale deserve,” she said. “Our plan will deliver metro-quality train services to Melbourne’s west sooner – meaning more trains, more seats and greater capacity.”
The opposition’s public transport pitch, aimed at frustrated voters in Melbourne’s west, reflects a dramatically altered political contest leading up to the November state election, with both the Coalition and One Nation targeting some of Labor’s “dead red” seats.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that since the 2016 census, the Melton local government area has swelled from 135,000 to 231,000 people while the City of Wyndham’s population has grown from 217,000 to 348,000.

That is a combined increase of 227,000 people over 10 years.

Victorian Department of Transport data shows that between 2019 and 2024, passenger numbers at eight stations on the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines – which currently carry diesel-powered V/Line trains – surged by 26 per cent.
In 2025, The Age revealed the government had obtained a secret report warning of “crush” conditions at railway stations across Melbourne’s fast-growing northern and western suburbs – circumstances where trains are forced to leave passengers behind on a station platform – unless the rail system was overhauled.
The document supported electrifying the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines, and said commuters could be left waiting on platforms if action wasn’t taken within the next five to 10 years.

This is already a regular rush-hour occurrence at stations such as Tarneit, which was opened in 2015. It sits on the Wyndham Vale line, which is serviced by V/Line trains running from Geelong to Melbourne.
Opposition public transport spokesman Matthew Guy said the new rolling stock would enable the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines to access suburban tracks after Sunshine and run through either the City Loop or Metro Tunnel, and allow more services to be run along the lines.
Suburban trains, because of their standing room, can also take more passengers than a V/Line train of comparable length.
Guy said the “crush” capacity of a six-car VLocity train was 444 passengers, but a six-car suburban train could squeeze in 1300 people.
“Suburban passengers should be on suburban trains,” Guy said. “We don’t think that Melton and Wyndham line commuters can wait a decade for suburban trains.

“It is much faster, much cheaper and a realistic answer to the problem of getting suburban trains to the western suburbs.”
Guy said hybrid trains would also reduce the air pollution at the busy Southern Cross station, which becomes thick with diesel fumes when too many country trains are idling at the platforms.

The opposition has also promised to establish an independent Public Transport Victoria board to improve governance of rail and bus services.
In 2025, Victorian transport tsar Jeroen Weimar, who left his role as secretary last week, told the West of Melbourne Summitthat the Melton line would be electrified after the $4.1 billion untangling of the track around Sunshine station and rebuild of nearby stations was completed in 2030.

Weimar said the government was exploring the use of battery-powered trains to deliver capacity improvements on the Wyndham Vale line, which would follow the Sunshine and Melton upgrades.

The Victorian and Commonwealth governments have together committed $152 million to develop its plan to electrify Melton and Wyndham Vale lines. Two sources with knowledge of the plan said the full cost had been estimated at a staggering $8 billion.
Rail Futures Institute president John Hearsch said bi-mode trains would be more expensive than VLocity models, the latest model rolled out by V/Line.
“It is technically possible and happening in other places, but … ultimately, the operating costs will be higher than a straight electric train,” he said.

“The advantages of it over the existing trains are pretty small.”
Hearsch said the bigger issue was that there wasn’t enough track space between Sunshine and the CBD to fit all the services needed to give Melton and Wyndham Vale frequencies comparable to other suburban lines.
Transport experts believe the proposed Melbourne Metro 2, another underground rail line to complement the Metro Tunnel line, could solve this problem by creating a cross-city route that would serve as a second rail corridor connecting the western suburbs to the city.
Hearsch said the institute believed in the short term that batteries should replace the auxiliary engines on VLocity trains, which would reduce pollution at Southern Cross Station.

No Pauline, you can't marginalise and incite hatred against various minorities in Australia

Can't wait until they get in.

Privacy law changes to target new technology including smart glasses, AI

The federal government will unveil a raft of changes to Australia’s privacy laws designed to keep pace with new technologies including smart glasses and artificial intelligence.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland will on Monday release the draft legislation, which will also include new online safeguards for identity documents, called IDLock, and a right to have personal information destroyed by social media and search companies.

Smart glasses look like normal glasses but can also photograph or film what the user sees, potentially without the consent or knowledge of other people. The Greens are already proposing new laws that would ban the import of the glasses for the next 12 months because of privacy concerns.

The rise of AI, meanwhile, has seen tech companies shovel huge volumes of data into their systems to help “train” their AI models, with little regard for people’s privacy or copyright.

The law changes will include a right to erasure, so people can ask social media and search companies to have their personal information destroyed, rather than it being retained. The right to erasure will not apply to media organisations publishing news articles.

Rowland said Australians deserved to have control over how their personal identity information, such as their driver’s licence or passport, is used to verify their identity online.

“As data breaches, scams and cyber-enabled crime continue to evolve, Australia’s approach must evolve with them. With the launch of IDLock, our government is taking the next step towards a stronger, more robust identity verification framework that expands the focus from responding after identity credentials have been compromised, to enabling Australians to protect themselves before identity crime occurs,” she said.

“Whether their driver licence details have been exposed in a data breach or they are concerned about scams and identity theft, IDLock will give Australians an accessible and simple way to have greater visibility, control and confidence in how their identity documents are used.”

After an initial trial, IDLock will be added to Australians’ myGov accounts in 2027 and will allow people to block, unblock and monitor the use of their ID documents.

It will help people ensure they do not have their ID stolen or misused in scams and other identity crimes, while also allowing them to see whether their data has been subject to a data breach or hacking incident.

IDLock builds on the Credential Protection Register, created in 2022 by the government, which is supposed to stop compromised identity documents from being used to falsely establish an individual’s identity. The register has blocked over 830,000 fraudulent identity verification attempts since it was established.

After the release of the proposed new laws, the government will consult industry and look to introduce the laws into parliament by the end of 2026.