A safe building sector critical for Tasmania

Elise Archer,Minister for Building and Construction

The Tasmanian majority Liberal Government is committed to assisting the State’s key sectors through the challenges faced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Tasmania’s building and construction sector, supported by hundreds of businesses and thousands of workers, has been one of the State’s great success stories in recent years.

This has been supported by record private sector investment, together with a record level of Tasmanian Government infrastructure funding for schools, hospitals, roads and other key assets.

The industry is, however, not immune from the major impacts of COVID-19.

While building sites around Tasmania have largely remained active, contractors have been required to put in place social distancing and personal hygiene measures to protect those working on and around sites.

Building and construction remains an essential activity under Public Health guidelines, however, the Government asks that all of those involved in the sector, businesses, contractors and employees, have a strong focus on measures to minimise risk of COVID-19 contraction.

I congratulate the construction sector member organisations for developing clear and extensive instructions for building sites, and these should be strictly followed. Any failure to do so risks the immediate future of the sector.

The work place health and safety regulator, Worksafe Tasmania, has also provided information for employers and employees which can be found at:

https://worksafe.tas.gov.au/topics/Health-and-Safety/safety-alerts/coronavirus

Key directions from Worksafe for businesses include:

  • keep up to date with Public Health Services (https://coronavirus.tas.gov.au/) advice on controls to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including any restrictions on normal business activities;
  • if there has been a confirmed case of COVID-19 in your place of business, you should seek immediate advice from Public Health Services;
  • if Public Health Services becomes aware of a positive diagnosis, it has procedures in place to track the movements of the person and will provide advice on what action should be taken;
  • current legislative requirements remain in force; however, if you are unable to meet your regulatory obligations because of COVID-19 then we will take a reasonable and proportionate response.

The Tasmanian Government is a steadfast supporter of the building and construction sector.

We have already announced bringing forward of millions of dollars of Government infrastructure funding as part of our stimulus package.

This is in addition to the $3.7 billion infrastructure pipeline that will support the many businesses and hard-working employees over coming years.

Building and construction industry members can obtain information about CVOID-19 specific to their sector at:

Master Builders Tasmania: https://mbatas.org.au/coronavirus-covid-19/

Housing Industry Association: https://hia.com.au/covid-19

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