David Dawes has spent his career making things happen. Known for his straight talking and his ability to get projects moving, he has played a central role in shaping housing, infrastructure and development policy in the ACT and beyond. From his work with the Master Builders Association to public service leadership, David has been a driving force for the industry.
David moved to real estate and senior roles in development, before his tenure with the MBA and finally, finishing up in the bureaucracy. “I started as a real estate salesman in Reg Daly Real Estate back in the early 80s. I became their sales director, a shareholder and a director of Reg Daly and RA Wellsmore. I then worked for Ivan Domazet in the late 80s early 90s. That was my introduction to development,” he recalls. The appeal was obvious: “What I liked was seeing something come out of the ground. You could drive past it years later and know you were part of it.”
David went to the MBA in 1994, initially working in membership. He was quite involved with the start of the excellence in building awards. Soon after, he applied for and won the role of Deputy Executive Director, and was ultimately promoted to Executive Director where he served the Association for just shy of a decade. “I started at the MBA on my 40th birthday. At the time the organisation was really on its knees. We had 50 first-year apprentices on our books and the building industry had collapsed. But I felt we had a moral obligation to keep paying those kids; they don’t get much money anyway.”
Under David’s stewardship the MBA developed pioneering programs. “We did the first school-based apprenticeship in Australia, with Marist College and Phillip College. We had 21 kids in that program,” he says. That success led to the establishment of the MBA Skills Centre at Page in the old Parks and Gardens depot, and eventually the purpose-built centre at Fyshwick. “I was very passionate about training – that’s the future of the industry.” He also helped establish the youth-at-risk program with a grant from the ACT Government. “We took on 10 boys from really troubled backgrounds. Some of them didn’t even have breakfast, so the host employers would feed them. That was very successful; some of those kids are still tradies today.” He is keen to highlight Jerry Howard’s role in the MBA’s training success. “We won a government grant to employ Jerry initially, and I kept him on. We worked on a lot of initiatives together.”
Financial security for builders came through another innovation. When insurer HIH collapsed, many MBA members faced disaster. At that time, the MBA represented 95 percent of the market. After lobbying hard for the industry, the Master Builders Fidelity Fund was established. It gave confidence back to homeowners and lifted standards right across the industry. “I am proud to have been an integral part of the success of the MBA, representing the interests of all facets of the building industry in the ACT,” says David.
In 2007, David was wooed into government as Deputy Secretary of the Chief Minister’s Department, later heading Land and Property Services and then Economic Development. “The first job I did was increase the land supply. The Chief Minister at the time, Jon Stanhope was all about increasing supply, because he was the first one to say housing affordability is an issue. We tested a lot of policies here with our MBA members before they became government policy,” he says. Among his proudest achievements was the public housing renewal program. “That was about dignity. Everyone deserves a decent home.”
Looking back, David has seen big changes. “When I started it was about getting things built. Now, it’s about how sustainable they are, how inclusive they are, and how quickly they can adapt. The pressures are greater, but so are the opportunities.” Right now, he sees affordability and skills as the big issues. “We’ve got to find ways to get costs down and to get more people into the trades. Otherwise, we’re not going to meet the demand for housing and infrastructure. We need to show young people that building is a career of first choice.”
As for the future, David suggests there is more available land the government should be releasing, and the MBA should be lobbying for that. “When you’ve got 90 per cent unit developments and 10 percent land, the land’s not going to get any cheaper. I believe the MBA should be lobbying to open up more standard residential and that ‘missing middle’, which is townhouses as well. There’s plenty of land,”he says.
