Punished by ‘thugs’

No smiles for Simon Dunstan this week. 128261_01

By Shelby Brooks

Small residential building companies within Casey and Cardinia have felt the blow from the State Government in the decision to shut down the construction industry.

Simon Dunstan, principal of SJD Homes, which primarily builds homes in Pakenham, Warragul and Drouin, is upset that those that have obeyed the Covid-19 regulations are being punished for actions by a few “violent thugs”

“The government has had a knee jerk reaction to a few violent thugs in the commercial sector and the question is if they’re actually members of the union or not,” he told the Gazette this week.

“Our guys are not members of the union, they are hardworking people.

“For no fault of their own they are now unemployed.”

He said he understood the construction industry had been lucky to remain operating throughout the majority of Covid-19 lockdowns, but said extreme measures had been in place to ensure Covid safety.

“It’s an absolute disgrace. The decision shows the lack of knowledge and understanding the government has about our industry,” Simon said.

“We’ve gone through the last 18 months and there has been very little or no cases in the residential sector.

“Where any outbreaks have happened, it has all been in the high rise commercial sector. We only ever have a few people on a job site at a time.”

Simon described the “first nail in the coffin” as the decision last Thursday to prohibit movement of construction workers between metro and regional Victoria.

“Our company will survive and get through this but where my heart is breaking is for so many of our clients,” Simon said.

“We’ve had so many people on the phone they can’t move into their homes- they’ve got commitments with their mortgages and rent.

“Nearly all of our trade base is subcontractors. They don’t have the funds to be able to sit at home for the next two or longer weeks and we are absolutely devastated for those people.”

Bek Bishop, co-founder of Elite Building Services, said her husband-wife business was based in Maryknoll, just 10 minutes from the regional-metro border.

She said her main concern was the relationships they have with their tradespeople and suppliers.

“If we do a job in regional, we now have to use a regional supplier or trade, so we might not be able to work with the people we’ve worked with since our inception and we’ve worked really hard on those relationships. We look after each other and that is how we have built our business,” she said.

“The other issue I’m really concerned with among trades, is people may start turning against each other as they need to work with other builders in their region, essentially taking work from each other, but they are just doing what they have to do to survive.

“I’m really concerned about the detrimental affect it will have not only on the industry, but on the people in our industry.

“The rules that have come out seem to be aimed more at large scale construction and almost impossible for small-scale, husband-wife teams to execute.

“This shut down will have a significant impact on everyone. People can’t work. People can’t move into their homes. Our economy will suffer. It’s truly devastating.“