
More than 800 skilled construction workers are considering moving to Western Australia to take advantage of the State Government’s $10,000 relocation incentive.
The ‘Build a life in WA’ incentive has been available to qualified construction workers living across the Nullabor and in New Zealand since the beginning of January.
Aimed at growing the state’s residential construction workforce capacity, the relocation incentive was a key recommendation of the Property Council WA’s Sky High report, released in November.
“Western Australia simply does not have enough workers in the residential construction market to build the homes we need,” Property Council WA Executive Director Nicola Brischetto said at the time.
“The state’s housing sector does experience tough and unique challenges in attracting skilled labour. It is competing against a high-paying mining sector and an extensive public infrastructure program for tools on the ground.”
The State Government has revealed that more than 800 interstate and New Zealand construction workers expressed interest in the Build a life in WA incentive within just weeks of the grant being made available.
“We’re thrilled to see so many $10k tradies keen to pack up their tools and venture west,” Training and Workforce Development Minister Simone McGurk recently told The Sunday Times newspaper.
“And its still early days — we hope to see even more interest as word spreads.
“This incentive will help ease the cost of relocating – but those who do make the move will no doubt discover there are plenty of other perks — financial and otherwise — that come with living in WA.”
Under the Build a life in WA program, skilled workers receive a $5,000 payment when they demonstrate they have found employment in WA. A second $5,000 is paid once they have worked in WA for six months.
More information can be found here: https://www.jobsandskills.wa.gov.au/build-a-life