On behalf of our members, Master Builders Victoria (MBV) is an active participant in the Victorian Government’s Building Industry Consultative Council (BICC), working alongside builders, employer associations and unions, to implement the BICC Women in Construction Strategy.

Over the last 10 months, through the BICC Equality Committee, MBV has been involved in the development of the Victorian Government’s Building Equality Policy (BEP), which was recently launched.

The BEP is an Australian first and aims to disrupt gender stereotypes and improve gender equality in the building, infrastructure, and civil engineering sectors. The BEP will apply to new government projects and mandates female representation in at least 3 per cent of each trade role, 7 per cent of each non-trade position, and 35 per cent of management, supervisor, and specialist labour roles.

The BEP will come into effect on 1 January 2022 and mandates that 4 per cent of labour hours for apprentices and trainees will be required to be performed by women.

As part of the process, MBV coordinated a joint submission with other members of the BICC, including Master Plumbers and Mechanical Service Association of Australia, Multiplex, and Lendlease. The submission included different targets for trade roles, non-trade roles, and onsite managerial roles, and that increasing the potential supply pipeline of women wanting to work in building and construction requires a concerted, whole-of-industry approach in sourcing, attracting, training, and retaining women workers. MBV also called on the Victorian Government to provide business certainty through a comprehensive roadmap outlining how and when targets would be implemented and reported on. The submission helped inform the BEP in its final format.

MBV remains dedicated to promoting gender equality in the workplace and within our industry. As part of our commitment, we worked throughout 2019 – 2020 to develop a set of draft Recruitment Standards showcasing what best practice looks like in gender diverse and inclusive building and construction organisations. In July 2021 we started a pilot rollout of these standards with three MBV member companies of varying sizes. Once completed, the feedback from this trial will allow us to refine this work and provide a practical set of Recruitment Standards for use in our industry.

While our sector is making good progress, it is evident that further work needs to be done to encourage more women to become fully qualified master trades.

More women are active in building and construction now than in the past, but they still make up just 2.5 per cent of all building and construction trades workers in Victoria.

It is vital that our sector changes so that it can reduce skills shortages and have a thriving and sustainable future.