Master Builders Deputy CEO, Paul Bidwell, said the reality of the situation is that the reintroduction of the waste levy makes housing affordability in Queensland yet another step away for would-be home owners.

“Sure, the levy won’t affect your average household…that is of course unless you’re wanting to buy or build a new home, or renovate an existing house,” Mr Bidwell said.

It comes after the State Government announced the reintroduction of a waste levy for Queensland at $70 per tonne, on top of local government waste disposal fees. Master Builders strongly lobbied government not to reintroduce it.

“The levy, set to commence in early 2019, will add a significant additional expense to the cost of new construction,” said Mr Bidwell.

“New home builders and buyers are already burdened with enough costs.

“Anywhere between 20 and 40 per cent of the cost of a new home is made up of government taxes, duties, levies and charges – this is just another one to add to the pile and make it harder for people to build.”

He said with no new opportunities or infrastructure for builders to increase recycling, their options were limited.

“Builders will have no choice but to absorb the cost or pass it along to home buyers,” he said.

Mr Bidwell said a new home build or major renovation site generated up to 20 tonnes of waste and the levy now added up to $1,400 to the cost of this disposal.

While builders, big and small, have actively improved their estimating and design practices to minimise wasting materials, the cost of disposing of construction waste will increase significantly as many builders don’t have access to waste recycling facilities, to decrease the volume that goes to landfill.

“Currently, the majority of waste generated by residential builders and smaller commercial builders (and all builders in regional and rural areas) goes direct to landfill, due to the lack of options for waste recycling,” he said.

“This will not change once the levy is enacted.”

Mr Bidwell said a positive was that Government has carved out rural and remote areas – those with a population of less than 10,000 – as exempt from paying the levy, given their lack of recycling infrastructure.

“However, this raises a similar situation of interstate waste being trucked into Queensland,” he said.

“If waste is generated in a levy zone and dumped in an exempt zone, it still needs to be paid.
 
“How government intends to police rural and remote exempt zones, to ensure they don’t become a dumping ground for regional and city waste, is yet to be seen.”

Consideration for an alternative to the waste levy was just one of the requests Master Builders made to State Government ahead of its Budget 2018-19 hand down.  Avoiding new taxes, increasing capital expenditure and committing to spending allocated budget, retaining the boost to the First Home Owners’ Grant and revisiting transfer duty will increase demand for new construction, creating a wave of investment and jobs.  

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