Canberra lockdown: Construction industry defends consultation as sector slams shut

Construction employees were explicitly listed as essential workers when the ACT was plunged into lockdown last year.

But this time the territory's 20,000 construction workers were informed via ACT Health's website that only "essential infrastructure" would remain live.

One worker, who wished to remain nameless, said his business was left "reading between the lines" as it struggled to work out which operations could remain live.

"The general consensus is [that] it was very vague. When construction was shut down in Sydney it was all over the news," he said.

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The ACT became the third jurisdiction to halt construction during Covid outbreaks, after pauses in South Australia and Sydney earlier this year.

But ACT Master Builders Association chief executive Michael Hopkins defended the ACT government's messaging, which came during a rapidly-evolving situation.

"Yesterday was an extremely busy period for everyone in government and in the business community trying to respond to these new rules," he said.

"We know the government was doing everything they could to get that information out to industry, which they did by the end of the day."

Mr Hopkins said the best way for the government to support impacted businesses was providing a "clear path" to reopening.

"That's why it's important that everyone in the building industry do everything they can to comply with the health rules at the moment," he said.

Adina Cirson, executive director of the Property Council of Australia's ACT division, revealed a meeting with industry leaders was scheduled just hours after the lockdown was announced.

"For people to be saying the message was a bit confused yesterday, I think that's right," she said.

"But I also think the government has been moving at a very quick pace and has been well-engaged with the industry about how this would work.

"I don't think there's any point pointing the finger here. Everyone's trying to be agile and thinking on their feet."

Ms Cirson said attention was already turning to reopening the sector, and further discussions with the ACT government were expected later this week.

"Let's minimise the impact to industry and let's try to work out a plan to get a partial or full reopen as soon as possible," she said.

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Construction at Canberra Hospital continued in a limited capacity, but residential and commercial property sites ground to a halt.

A 24-hour grace period was implemented, allowing companies to ensure sites were safely secured. Minimal attendance was also allowed throughout the lockdown to confirm the site remained safe.

Builders laying concrete, which required work to ensure structural integrity after the fact, were also able to complete their task.

Canberrans whose hours were impacted during the lockdown will have access to an emergency COVID-19 payment from the federal government.

But Ms Cirson warned support for construction businesses, which required them to show reduced income, would be more complicated.

"Construction isn't like a cafe where your revenue's instantly cut off," she said.

"You might be receiving settlement payments and all those sorts of things that come in during the week of the lockdown.

"So you actually might not make more money in the week of lockdown, but the longer-term impacts of the slowed construction and won't actually be felt for some time."

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Ms Cirson warned a number of workers had moved to Canberra during the construction pause in Sydney.

But she warned a "complete slowing" of residential construction could see the ACT suffer a skills shortage.

"They're now going to go back to Sydney because you can work in Sydney. We're going to lose those people and we're not going to be able to get them back for the foreseeable future," he said.

"We've got a housing crisis at the moment. There is such huge demand for apartments that we really need to be getting those projects finished, settled, and back into the market."

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