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A millionaire property developer says unemployment must increase by up to 50 per cent to jolt tradies back to "productivity", if the housing crisis is to be solved.
Tim Gurner, the founder of Gurner Group, told the Australian Financial Review Property Summit there needed to be drastic changes.
"Unemployment has to jump 40 to 50 per cent in my view. We need to see pain in the economy," he said, according to the AFR.
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"We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around.
"Tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. They have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change."
In the latest set of numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, unemployment in July was 3.6 per cent.
A 50 per cent increase would see that rise to 5.4 per cent.
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Gurner's claims were "detached from reality", CFMEU National Secretary Zac Smith said.
"This is a disgraceful insult to workers who bust their guts every single day in one of Australia's most dangerous industries," Smith said.
"Worst of all, it's simply flat out wrong.
"Productivity and corporate profits have raced ahead of wages for years.
"It's astounding a self-appointed expert could be so far detached from reality."
Gurner also called for increased immigration to fill the labour gap, but others at the summit warned that might only increase the pressure on housing.
"We absolutely have to have immigration," he said.
And he said the planning system in Sydney was "fundamentally broken".
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Late last year, Gurner's personal net worth was calculated at $788 million.
Gurner Group's website puts the worth of its development and management portfolio at over $9.5 billion.
