Visa crackdown hits home: The WA construction giant with 160 foreign workers locked out

One of the state’s largest builders says home builds will keep slipping behind targets if the federal government doesn’t resolve delays to its overseas skilled workers visa program.

Summit Homes Group general manager Cameron Lade said the company had 162 workers in the Philippines ready to work in WA, but they were stuck in limbo thanks to unexplained delays to their visa applications.

“We’ve been promised that it’s normally a six-month approval process...72 of those [162] are eight months and over,” he said.

“The challenge for us is that the silence is quite deafening because we’re not getting any feedback.”

WA’s home building figures were improving but have stagnated recently, with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing 2270 new homes were approved in July, 0.3 per cent lower than June but 21.5 per cent higher than July last year.

Migration continues to be a hot-button issue as a resurgent Pauline Hanson and One Nation blame housing, health and education woes on the migrant population boom of the past five years.

Labor continues to feel the heat from One Nation and has promised changes to immigration levels.

Last month the AFR reported that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke issued a directive to his department on July 24 to deprioritise visa applications from abroad and instead focus on processing applications for people already in the country.

Lade said his company had 2000 home builds on the books and planned to start another 2000 homes next year, but they could not do it without help from overseas workers.

“In round figures, one additional person will help us build two homes a year,” he said.

Lade said the company had spent about $6 million on visa applications and was refurbishing accommodation to house the workers.

He said he raised the issue with Treasurer Jim Chalmers during the federal cabinet visit to WA last week but was losing hope.

“I guess we just have lost confidence in being able to get any response from the federal government because no one knows why,” he said.

“All the relevant state government ministers are aware of the situation, and my understanding is that they are working behind the scenes.”