Latest / The Good Builder Podcast / The Daily Dose #144 | HIA Rankings Confusion & CFMEU Inquiry: What Builders Need to Know
Transcript
- Aaron Ng (00:01) This amazing episode is brought to you by the legends at the New Home Electrical Specialist. Go and have a chat with Alan and the team. They are the experts in New Home Electrical and they work with some of the biggest and smallest builders all around Queensland. Go and check them out. It's tnhes.com.au or just look them up on Instagram, LinkedIn, or all the socials and have a chat with Alan and the crew. They're gonna make your life a fair bit easier. Aaron Ng (00:48) G'day legends. Good morning and welcome back to the Good Builder podcast. It's Friday and it's spring. Spring has sprung. It is beautiful weather up here in Queensland. We hope you get it all around Australia, wherever you're listening from. But today we've got two really interesting topics to talk about on the podcast. First up, the HIA Top 100 just dropped sponsored by one of the biggest brands in Australia, COLORBOND Steel. and it's meant to be the industry benchmark. Some builders are missing, some numbers look off. And so is this list adding transparency to the industry or is it creating more confusion and mistrust? Or is there something else we need to do so we can see the right data and get some transparency around this? We're gonna tackle this in the first part of this podcast. Then in the second part of this podcast And probably just as spicy as that, we'll talk the commission of inquiry into the CFMEU potential misconduct in the construction industry. The first public hearing just actually kicked off October 1st, and we have been provided by the inquiry, the videos, the transcripts, that we'll be providing over the next couple of days, but I'll break a few of the things down in this podcast today and give you a heads up on what to look out for. So it's a big day. It's pretty spicy. It's Friday. Let's enjoy it and let's get into it. Okay. So number one, the HIA top 100 report dropped last week and it's been seen as a bit of a scoreboard for the industry. I remember in my days at GJ Gardner and I've spoke about it a few times on this podcast that it was like Christmas for me. I'd wait for it, see where we're ranking and then boom, out go the social tiles and the celebrations and that sort of thing. But this year when we had a look at it and since being involved in the early days of Australian construction data, which tracks the completions. It's a portal that tracks completions straight off the ground. The numbers didn't match. Some builders that we know that have completed strong volumes in Queensland weren't included. Others ranked higher than others. The numbers were somewhat off. So I'm going to do a bit of a video around this and just show what we're seeing compared to what the HIA Top 100 report sees. But... We've been talking to a few of the builders out there. And I think one of the other factors that is making this report not as transparent and not an industry snapshot as what it should be is the result that master builders don't produce also this type of ranking. So HIA's list seems to be effectively just the HIA builders. And it shows how they're ranking, how many numbers they've done for the year without including some of the others. so there were some big hitters that got missed out of this report, including the likes of the guys and girls at Avia homes, and also the guys and girls at FRD who were doing some tremendous volumes in the industry. And they were two of the builders that when I had to look at the report, they were the first things that popped out. So here it is in my point of view. Across the industry, and I talked about this before, the three things that are gonna make us successful are time, transparency and trust. And certainly transparency and clarity is something we need in the industry. Ranking should be about giving customers, suppliers, trades and government confidence about who's who in the market. And when the numbers don't stack up and some builders aren't included, I think it starts to undermine the actual result of what the reports are supposed to do. If we wanna raise the bar as an industry, our opinion here at the Good Builder is we need to consolidate these numbers or like Peter Love at Australian Construction Data has done, bring these numbers together across the country. He's done it in Queensland right now, but bring them across the country so we can get a clear snapshot of these rankings, what they're producing, how much they're producing, You can also assess capacity, who's growing, the who's who in the market, and also help some of you suppliers and trades and all that sort of thing out there on who to target. we'll drop a bit of an article around this and try and add some clarity around the top 50 in Queensland at this point in time. So keep an eye out for that on socials. So now the next story I got for you right now is a pretty spicy one and shots have been fired in the first CFM EU hearing about misconduct in the construction industry. public hearings have officially opened October 1st in Brisbane. Commissioner Stewart would made it clear in his remarks that while this inquiry has only just gone public behind the scenes, the commission has already been busy. There's actually been nearly a hundred notices and summances issued, interviews are underway and investigations have already started. He set the tone by reminding us how vital construction is to Australia. It's the industry that builds our homes. It's the industry that builds our schools. It's the industry that builds our hospitals and the one that we rely on for infrastructure and growth. And because of that, projects must be delivered efficiently, transparently and free from coercion or corruption. senior council assisting Liam Kelly KC also hammered home that this inquiry isn't just about the CFMEU. If misconduct is found by other players, companies, individuals, whoever, they'll be investigated too. he acknowledged that there's an obvious elephant in the room, which is fear, fear of intimidation, fear of speaking out. But he called for good people to have the courage to keep stepping forward, promising confidentiality and protection for those who do. So what does this mean for builders? Well, the inquiry could reshape how industrial relations and site practices are managed for years to come. It could expose corruption. Yes, absolutely. But it could also help clean up the parts of our industry that desperately need reform. And this is what we're all about at The Good Builder. public hearings are actually going to be live streamed. We're going to drop a few of the things that we've received from the inquiry themselves and transcripts will be online. So we'll drop the links in the bottom of the podcast for those that are interested. It's a big deal. This one, and it isn't just noise in the background. This is something that every builder I reckon should keep their eye on. So it's been a pretty massive week. we dropped a few massive podcasts with some really cool people in the industry. Number one, a big shout out to Jake Barry from My Construct. He's an absolute weapon in the industry. When I put his stuff up on LinkedIn, you see, you might not know him, but you've probably used a lot of the stuff that he's created. He's a legend. So check out that podcast. That's the My Construct podcast. Another shout out goes to Sean Parsons. Mate, I've been wanting to interview you for so long. And finally, we got to drop your interview with your video coming soon, mate. So everyone keep an eye out for that. He's just made the transition to Avia Homes and he's going to be a monster over there as he is in every business. And he's got a lot of good tips from people looking for land or salespeople and how to create relationships with developers. But also we had a great chat about resilience, mental health, and what's going to better this industry. And he's so passionate about that. So such a good bloke. And last but not least a huge shout out to Dan Urquhart He is another great guy. I'm actually doing his courses. We speak from a thousand feet deep, the hand head hard course just to build on my leadership to always continually improve myself. I would go and check out what they do, but also take a listen to the podcast. and all we talked about with a non-negotiables, that builders and their people and teams. And you can use this in your life that you should implement to become more effective and efficient, and also focus on the things that are important to you in your life. And I think that's the key. You know, professionally we can do this, but also in your life. I think this there's a application there from the lessons that you learned from Dan Urquhart. So that was a very cool pod as well. And we'll continually have him on. So thank you very much for another great week. Thank you very much for all the support. We now have about a 20,000 plus strong audience that listened to us, you know, on our socials, all that sort of thing. It's been an amazing journey and And we've got a lot more work to do and we appreciate everything you do for us. Please like and subscribe if you can, or if you haven't do it, we'll keep dropping all this stuff. And if you've got something that we, that you'd like us to talk about, just like the CFMEU inquiry reached out to us, get in touch with us. If it's important to the industry, we'll run it. So get in touch with us at admin at thegoodbuilder.com.au numbers on the website. And we hope you have a great weekend. It's a long weekend up here in Queensland, but we'll still be dropping Monday. See you.