Comprehensive Report on Issues in Australian Construction Industry

This report provides an overview of the current state of the Australian construction industry, focusing on key issues and challenges. It addresses rising project costs, worker safety concerns (particularly falls and falling objects), and quality control problems. The report also highlights the significant issue of construction and demolition waste, analyzing its classification, causes, and management strategies. Factors contributing to waste, such as poor site management, material handling, and storage are discussed. The report emphasizes the importance of implementing the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) principles to minimize environmental pollution, extend the lifespan of materials, and reduce project costs. The report concludes by summarizing the main challenges and emphasizing the significance of construction waste management for sustainable development.

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CURRENT STATE OF AUSTRALIA CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
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INTRODUCTION
This paper seeks to assess the current state of the Australia construction industry and some
challenges faced in the construction industry. Some of the common issues found in the Australia
construction industry include rising CO2 emissions, deaths caused by falling objects or falls from
height, rising cost of projects, quality control, and construction wastes. These issues are
extensively discussed in Section 1 and 2 below.
SECTION 1
The current issues in the Australia construction industry discussed in this section include the
rising cost of projects, deaths caused by falls or falling objects, and also quality control.
Deaths Caused By Falls or Falling Of Objects
The safety of workers continues to be a challenge plaguing the Australian construction industry.
For many years now, the construction industry led all industries in the total number of deaths
caused by accidental falls, falling of objects, and electrocution of workers. According to Safe
Work Australia (SWA), The Australian construction industry is the 3rd most deadly with about
twice the average rate of fatality and is ranked 5th for causing server injuries (Nurimbetov and
Zikriyoev, 2019). Falls are the 3rd mots cause of injuries and the common cause of death and
normally occurs when using elevated work platforms or scaffolding.
Quality Control
This is one of the most nagging problems facing the Australian construction industry and is
generally caused by poor productivity and a lack of regulation and law to control the quality of
delivered services. Quality control in construction is due to the industry lacking focus to develop

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the best standard of services that should be delivered. In the market at times affected by the legal
system, law, regulatory system, and poor productivity set up to regulate the quality of services
and goods provided at times struggle to deliver a total package of regulation and compliance
(Chunlu and Shimeng, 2016). This is partly since the construction industry at times lacks the
commitment to establish the best standards of services and products that should be issued since
they are focused on other matters like survival, frankly, and cash flow.
Rising Project Cost
The cost of construction in Australia is one of the highest globally. Whether the construction
project is hotels, high-rise apartments, or commercial property, the cost is generally higher. The
cost of construction has increased by 4% in Melbourne and 3.5% in Sydney. There have been
concerns for some time regarding the looming construction costs as various infrastructure
projects are in planning or underway creating pressure on resource availability and capacity
availability (Shanthi, 2017). The high cost of construction is attributed to the rise in the cost of
construction materials and also labor which has led to an overall increase in construction projects
making most projects unaffordable to most investors hence affecting the quality of projects.
SECTION 2
The most important issue in the Australia construction industry is the construction and
demolition wastes which include various materials like excavated residuals, chemical containers,
concrete, building debris, steel, rubble, and vegetation. Since construction wastes can be
produced at all stages of the construction project from initiation to completion, and it can be
described as all activities which produce indirect or direct costs, without improvement or adding
any value to the product (Frigione and Lettieri, 2018). The construction industry is one of the

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sectors that produce and dumps heaps of wastes to landfill. 40% of the demolition and
construction wastes are disposed to landfill resulting in environmental pollution.
The construction and demolition wastes are the most important waste that needs to be considered
due to the current pressing global issues regarding construction waste management to ensure
sustainable development through the conservation of resources. A total of 19.0 million tonnes of
demolition and construction wastes was produced in Australia between 2010 and 2013 out of
which 10.5 million tones was recycled or recovered and 8.5 million tones were disposed to
landfill.
Analysis of Construction Wastes
Waste in construction is defined as any inefficiency that results in the use of capital, labor,
materials, or equipment in larger amounts than what is considered as essential in the building
construction. In Australia, construction waste is caused by the demolition of buildings such as
railway maintenance and construction, road construction, and building construction including
digging (Tang, 2013). The construction wastes can be categorized into two different
classifications, namely non-physical and physical waste.
Figure 1: Classification of construction waste (Perera et al., 2019)

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Physical construction wastes are those wastes that originate from demolition, renovation, and
construction actions including roadwork, site clearance, building, and civil construction, and land
excavation. These physical wastes include excavated residuals, chemical containers, concrete,
building debris, steel, rubble, and vegetation (James, 2014). Non-physical waste includes the cost
and time overrun and is normally caused by the performance of unnecessary work, reworks,
delays in execution, work interruptions, and waiting durations.
Figure 2: Causes of construction waste according to ranks (Seco et al., 2018)
It is observed that the quantities of construction waste are increasing because of the intensive
increase in the number of construction projects. The quantification of construction waste
produced from different activities of construction is the major priority of the majority of the
environmental agencies.
Factors Contributing to Construction Wastes
There are several factors contributing to the construction waste and are categorized by the site
management and practices, materials storage, transportation, and handling, and materials
management on-site (Hughes and Thorpe, 2014). These factors contributing to construction
waste include poor waste management plan, accidents during transportation and handling, poor

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storage, oversized building elements, theft and vandalism, packaging defects, manufacturing
defects, poor handling of materials, and damage of materials on site.
Construction Waste Management
Construction waste can be reduced through the implementation of reducing, reuse, and recycle
principles. The implementation of 3Rs principles reduce environmental pollution, extend the
lifespan of natural materials, reduce the use of raw materials, reduce the cost of the project, and
reduce use of landfill and a waste disposal site (James, 2014). Materials such as ceramics, tiles,
bricks, and concrete can be reused in the construction of pavements and ground leveling. The
waste materials such as steel and copper can be recycled by collecting and selling as scrap metals
to be remanufactured. The packaging wastes can be managed by reducing their usage by
encouraging manufacturers to avoid using packaging materials.
CONCLUSION
According to this research, some of the common issues found in the Australia construction
industry include rising CO2 emissions, deaths caused by falling objects or falls from height, the
rising cost of projects, quality control, and construction wastes. The most important issue in the
Australia construction industry discussed in this case study is the construction and demolition
wastes which are normally caused by poor site management and practices, materials storage,
transportation, and handling, and materials management on-site.

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