I am Mark Kilroy, a Chartered Quantity Surveyor who has worked with major developers and Tier 1 contractors across Australia. I sit on the Queensland AIQS committee, I am a member of RICS, and my team has been a finalist for Quantity Surveyor Team of the Year for the past four years. After two decades on sites and in boardrooms, I am frustrated.
We all acknowledge there is a cost problem, yet we rarely speak plainly about the causes or commit to the solutions that actually move projects from not feasible to delivered.
Through the Gold Coast Chamber I convene housing debates that bring the right people into one room. Developers, builders, financiers, planners, and both local and federal government sit together and we deal in specifics. When four different stakeholders make the same three asks, policy stops being a slogan and becomes a setting.
[STATS:animated]
The Real Drivers of Cost
Australia's cost base is not simply a labour story or a materials story. It's the compounding effect of multiple crisis points hitting simultaneously:
The Perfect Storm:
- Tight labour supply meeting unprecedented demand
- Low measured productivity on construction sites
- Volatile materials priced off global energy and freight
- A weaker Australian dollar inflating every imported component
- Planning and utility delays that stretch budgets thin
- Contracts that push unknown risks onto builders
Documentation quality is another repeat offender. Incomplete or inconsistent drawings create RFIs, variations, rework and delay. Single stage lump sum procurement on partially complete designs forces contractors to price unknowns, and the project then lives with exclusions, claims and disputes.
The Productivity Crisis Nobody Talks About
Here's the statistic that shocked me: On too many Australian sites, true productive time nets out to roughly 2.3 days per week once you remove hours lost to:
- RFIs and design clarifications
- Late deliveries and logistics delays
- Rework and quality issues
- Weather protocols and safety stops
- Access constraints and permit windows
- Stacked trades creating bottlenecks
We argue about wage rates, but output per labour hour is what buries feasibility. If we doubled effective time on tools, many projects would move from marginal to bankable without changing a single specification.
[POLL:What's the biggest productivity killer on Australian construction sites?]
What Other Countries Do Differently
Look at the United Arab Emirates and Asian markets. They treat time on tools as sacred:
Their Success Formula:
- Sites run extended windows with specialist night crews
- Design for manufacture and assembly - bathrooms and cores arrive as products
- Clear planning and utility timelines with accountability
- Rigorous digital coordination enforced at site level
- Structured migration programs ensuring predictable labour supply
- Faster payment cycles reducing finance premiums
The Conversation Australia Avoids
Targeted skilled migration is politically sensitive. Expanding trade visas can upset voters worried about housing and jobs. Many firms avoid the topic while bidding government work.
The result? Silence.
Avoiding the conversation does not lower costs. We need an adult approach that protects standards and creates local opportunity simultaneously.
A Practical Workforce Plan
I believe we need capacity now, and we need a pipeline that sticks. Here's my three-lever approach:
Lever 1: Critical Trades Visa Fast-track entry for carpenters, formworkers, steel fixers, electricians and plumbers. Every migrant paired with a local apprentice, with audited housing and fair pay compliance.
Lever 2: Outcome-Based TAFE Funding Pay providers for completions and six-month retention, not just enrollments. Give leading hands mentor credit because structured coaching reduces rework and dropouts.
Lever 3: Modern Tools and Comfort Layout robots, rebar tying tools, mechanical lifts, dust extraction, proper hydration and shade. These aren't science fiction - they're available now and keep people in the trade.
How AI Can Help Right Now
AI can deliver measurable savings this year with humans firmly in the loop:
Immediate Applications:
- Tender scrub checking for missing scope and outlier rates (1-3% savings common)
- Design-to-budget guardrails showing live cost impact of changes
- AI variation checker testing entitlement and compliance
- Computer vision measuring installed work and safety compliance
- Nowcasting models forecasting trade rates for optimal buying
The Solutions That Actually Work
For Government:
- Planning certainty through code-assessed pattern books
- Two-stage procurement with rise and fall provisions
- Prompt payment codes with 14-day terms cascading to subcontractors
- Pipeline guarantees so industry can invest in modernisation
- Bring builders in at concept design
- Open book trade letting with agreed fees
- Standardise grids, spans, and modules ruthlessly
- Move work off-site where logistics allow
- Pay the chain faster - cashflow risk gets priced into every job
The Cost Data Problem
We need a neutral cost data trust. Contributors upload anonymised actuals to an audited system. The market receives live indices and benchmark assemblies without firm-level disclosure.
This kills the "fog tax" while protecting commercial position.
When everyone works from fresh signals, estimates converge on reality and feasibility improves dramatically.
My Call to Action
To Government: Give us planning with speed and certainty. Fund TAFE for outcomes, not just enrollments. Create targeted skilled migration paired with local training.
To Industry: Stop whispering about the real problems. Lock affordability envelopes early and design to them. Standardise ruthlessly. Use AI where it saves time and money.
[QUOTE:We will not solve affordability by reciting labour versus materials. We will solve it by doubling effective time on tools, by sharing signals safely, by standardising delivery, and by using AI to compress the gap between estimate and outcome]
The Path Forward
I will keep convening these debates through the Gold Coast Chamber until these settings become normal. The solutions exist. The technology is available. What we need now is the courage to implement them.
If you want to be part of that conversation or need help implementing this playbook on a live project, I'm here to help. The industry that builds Australia's future deserves better than the status quo.
📊 Explore the Interactive Analysis
Dive deeper into the numbers with our comprehensive interactive analysis that shows exactly how these solutions impact your project costs. Use the calculators to model your specific scenarios and see the potential savings.
Ready to transform your construction projects? Contact our quantity surveying team for a consultation on implementing these cost-saving strategies.