"Is it any wonder building approvals are down when the CFMEU helped to add 30% more cost to build.....The good old unions, the friends of the workers, have made housing affordable."
And another 30% has been added by bureaucracy with red tape, council charges, contributions and regulations.
Yes that's correct. While labor input cost as reduced in real terms over the past decades, the amount of overhead has increased. e.g:
Allowance for affordable housing;
Road infrastructure is only partially subsidised whereas it used to the council or main roads activity;
Reticulation of water and power is on the developer (used to council or electricity provider);
New technologies readiness, e.g. NBN;
Certifier fees;
Engineering fees;
Increased onerous regulation through the Building Code of Australia (BCA);
More tiers of consultancy and authorsisations;
Greater desire for higher profits by developers;
licencing of trades and prohibition of the jack of all;
etc.
The labour component has actually reduced as a % of the build and mechanisation has enabled that as has better methods and materials of the build.
THe J section of the BCA has put a lot of focus on energy efficiency and that means lots of architectural considerations, aspect orientations, low capacitance materials, high insulation properties,etc.
The modern building has loads of technology ready infrastructure.
Anyone who really wants to know why things cost so much more than when dinosaurs walked the earth, just have to compare a residential/commercial building of the 70s to their counterparts now to see there are loads more features and build components.