Victoria’s construction sector leads a strong economy

Australian Bureau of Statistics recently revealed the value of Victorian building approvals for the year to November 2018 was worth $39.5 billion.

For the month of November, the value of Victorian building approvals increased by 8.2 per cent to $3.49 billion. Non-residential building approvals were particularly strong, up 27.1 per cent to $1.4 billion - 14.6 per cent higher than a year ago.

Victoria’s residential building sector also continues to be among the nation’s strongest performers, recording the highest value of building approvals in November 2018.

Treasurer Tim Pallas said the results showed Victoria’s building sector continued to benefit from the government’s record investment in infrastructure and economic management. “Nearly 427,000 jobs have been created across the state during the Labor Government’s first term - with almost 300,000 of them full time,” he said.

While these figures suggested that the current boom in construction would continue for some time, Master Plumbers CEO Peter Daly said the Association would continue to advocate for legislation that provides security of payment for all Victorians carrying out work in the industry.

“A lot of construction activity is done by small enterprises and they, like everyone else working in any job, deserve to get paid on time,” Mr Daly said.

“It’s critical that the government ensures that benefits of the strong current investment in infrastructure are passed on to those businesses employing workers and delivering those results. All enterprises require a solid cash flow to operate and this is particularly the case for smaller plumbing enterprises which are nearly always subcontracting to larger builders.”