Building Equality Policy to penalise male-dominated construction projects from 2024

The Building Equality Policy - introduced by the state government in partnership with Victoria's Building Industry Consultative Council - aims to overhaul the male-dominated construction industry and bolster female numbers.

Government projects worth over $20 million will have a two-year transition period to fulfill the gender quotas (at least three per cent of trade roles, seven per cent of non-trades) before being penalised from January 2024 onwards in a national first.

It comes after latest labour force figures showed the south-west had the lowest number of women in construction in Victoria, with just a handful of registered tradeswomen on the tools in Warrnambool.

It comes after latest labour force figures showed the south-west had the lowest number of women in construction in Victoria, with just a handful of registered tradeswomen on the tools in Warrnambool.

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Portland Kustom Kitchens cabinet maker Cara McCourt said while she'd love to see more women in her industry, a mandated quota was the wrong approach.

"Women will join if they're interested," Ms McCourt said.

"I don't think that would happen even if a quota was put forward. I just feel like there's not enough women who are genuinely interested in it to level it out.

"Most guys get into it because they just don't really know what else to do so they just pick a trade out of school and just go with it. That's why there's a majority of men in it. Not a lot of people are actually really passionate about it - they just do it as a job because it's very generalised."

She said campaigns putting a spotlight on women in the industry would be a better option.

"I think they're doing fine with just putting stories out there about how there are women in trades so that people hear about it and if they want to do it they'll say 'oh there's actually a fair few out there, I just didn't realise that - it's sort of already doing its thing," she said.

"Instead of being a forceful thing saying 'we need to get these numbers' it should be something like 'if you're interested in a trade it is open for you to do'."

Latest figures from Melbourne Eastern Group Training also show numbers are on the rise nationally, with engineering proving the leading trade of choice for regional Victorian women, rising from 9.8 per cent (2018) to 11.2 per cent (2021).

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