The Allan Labor Government has taken a sledgehammer to the construction industry, introducing the Building Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 which will push the cost of building a home up by as much as $30,000.
Rather than fixing Victoria's housing crisis, Labor is making it worse - failing to protect consumers, punishing reputable builders, and putting the dream of home ownership even further out of reach for young Victorians.
Shadow Assistant Minister for Planning and the Building Industry, Wayne Farnham, said the bill was just the latest example of Labor siding with fringe parties instead of backing Victorian families.
"At a time when young Victorians are finding it harder and harder to build a home, the Government - along with the Greens, Cannabis Party and Animal Justice Party - have again voted to make housing more unaffordable," Mr Farnham said.
"This bill does nothing to fix the real problem of consumer protection. The only thing it achieves is to push up construction costs."
Master Builders Victoria CEO, Michaela Lihou, said the bill failed to deal with the real issues in the building sector.
"Let's be clear - this legislation will do nothing to protect consumers from unregistered and uninsured operators delivering substandard work," Ms Lihou said.
"Piling more legislation on decent builders is just another way of pushing them out of the industry, at a time when we've never needed them more."
Housing Industry Association Executive Director, Keith Ryan, warned the bill unfairly targets one side of the legal process.
"Our legal process for resolving disputes, be it a domestic building dispute or any other matter, can be easily abused by an unscrupulous party to a case," Mr Ryan said.
"The new legislation tries to resolve that general flaw in the legal process by limiting the rights of one side - builders - to a fair hearing.
"It is not reasonable or necessary that all home builders stand to suffer due to the misbehaviour of a minority."
As housing approvals collapse, costs continue to rise, and builders leave the industry in record numbers, Labor's answer is more red tape, more cost, and no solution.
