Next year, the Master Builders Association of the ACT (MBA ACT) will celebrate its centenary, and now it has its first female CEO with a very clear goal: get more homes on the ground.

Anna Neelagama said the MBA ACT was a peak body for the building and construction industry in Canberra. 

“I think it’s just back to basics, you need certain things to build housing, [such as] releasing the right kind of land and fast-tracking the planning approvals,” said the former Queenslander and mother of two.

In June, there were 214 new home-building approvals in the ACT, 51 of which were detached houses, down 30.1 per cent from May. 

Far more was required in order to cater to Canberra’s growing population. “Everyone wants to live here, it’s a great place to live. And I know from the real estate side of things, people often don’t take jobs because housing is expensive, so we need to turn all of that on its head,” she said.

“It’s just about turbocharging all of our different functions to help our members navigate these pretty unprecedented times.

“And I think skills is another massive one for MBA ACT members. Most sectors in Australia struggle with skills shortages, so just really ramping up efforts to close those skills gaps.”

She said MBA ACT had continuously advocated for long-term funding for apprenticeships, with one-off payments such as the ones announced in June not doing enough to address chronic shortages in apprentice funding.

On the consumer side, cost of living, interest rates and a general sense of uncertainty have played major roles in the current housing crisis.

“Canberra is quite unique in the sense that, when there’s an election, people kind of hold off on making decisions,” she said.

“We have the ACT election in October and then the federal election uniquely affects us as well, and that’ll be held in May, so you have that degree of economic uncertainty and then general uncertainty.

“And then on the building side, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all the costs went up – materials, labour, massive skills shortage – there were a lot of industrial relations reforms.

“So it’s just been this, kind of a perfect storm.”

Her other focus was boosting the women-in-construction program.

She said MBA ACT have had female presidents in the past and, since 2018, had run the Master Builders Women in Construction Group, but as the first female CEO, she was excited to expand on those efforts.

“We’re at the start of the journey, so still a way to go. I think we need to still understand what has traditionally stopped school leavers, tertiary-qualified women, and even change-of-career women coming into the sector.

“I think we need to do a deep dive and really properly explore that for the first time.

“Being part of that, and being part of the continued development of the ACT is something that’s super exciting and special to be part of.”