As the Member of Parliament for Manurewa, I know first-hand the importance of the building and construction sector.
In 2023, when Labour was in Government, one in ten Kiwis worked in the sector, including thousands here in South Auckland.
But the sector is also the backbone across New Zealand of jobs, infrastructure, and the cost of living.
When it slows, everything slows, from housing, productivity, regional growth, and opportunity for young people, too many of whom have left for Australia for jobs under this Government.
What’s happening in New Zealand today – more than 20,000 jobs lost in construction, more than 750 construction firms liquidated in 2025 – is the direct result of this Government’s policy decisions.
Labour has spent the last three years listening to industry, and it is clear this Government’s approach is flawed.
Speed does not equal supply. The Government is pushing faster consents, less regulation, more overseas products, but shifting risk onto tradies and weakening oversight without fixing underlying capacity.
Faster processes do not help if firms cannot afford to build or secure stable pipelines.
A second trend is industry pain. Contracts are locked in, demand is soft, margins are tight or non-existent. Big firms are cutting costs and restructuring, not expanding.
Investment decisions are cautious, not confident. That means fewer apprentices, fewer new entrants, and less long-term capability.
Finally, there’s a lack of resilience and not seeing government as a client. We need more resilient infrastructure, more maintenance, better planning, but the current approach is piecemeal.
We are not seeing the scale of public investment or coordination needed to stabilise the sector. Instead, the Government are hoping the market will recover on its own.
The situation was bad before the current fuel crisis. Now rising diesel costs hit every site, every delivery, every subcontractor.
The Government’s response has only been operational: keeping fuel flowing, not helping firms absorb the cost shock.
For construction, that means higher costs with no buffer. Projects get delayed, repriced, or cancelled. That feeds directly into fewer homes built and fewer jobs, and even higher cost of living.
By contrast, under the Labour Government during COVID, building and construction was treated as a critical industry.
Labour moved quickly to get sites operating safely again, because stopping the sector would have long-term consequences.
Labour backed the pipeline, with infrastructure investment and public projects to keep people in work.
Finally, Labour supported firms to stay viable, so they could keep apprentices and skilled workers.
If we want more homes, lower costs, and good jobs, we need a Government willing to use every tool.
The contrast is clear: this Government is focused on deregulation and hoping the market fills the gap.
Labour focuses on stability, pipeline, and protecting capability. Labour won’t continue this Government’s damaging stop-start cycle. We’ll back construction, protect jobs, and give industry the confidence it needs to grow.
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