00:01While the nation's attention has firmly been on rapidly increasing fuel costs due to ongoing conflict overseas,
00:08crucial supply chains for petroleum and natural gases needed to make PVC have also been disrupted,
00:15leading to price hikes as well as shortages.
00:17It's left the building industry scrambling to find the product and with a bigger bill than they expected to pay.
00:23If you can't get pipes in the ground, you can't lay a slab and then that just grinds everything to
00:29a halt.
00:30It's a situation industry experts have likened to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact isn't just being felt in
00:37construction.
00:38Farmers who rely on the product for their irrigation systems have been left in the dark.
00:42South Australian irrigation supplier Tom Dracopoulos says he's already had local growers looking to put off desperately needed work due
00:51to the cost.
00:51We're getting people asking us from now the supply irrigation for next year
00:56because no one knows how to answer the question of what is going to happen in the next three months.
01:01Back on the construction site, there's a call from lobby groups to reinstate rise and fall clauses in building contracts,
01:08something that was last done in 2020.
01:10That would mean rather than a fixed price, building contracts could go up and down based on the going rate
01:16for labour and materials.
01:17The state government has yet to commit to the changes but says it continues to monitor ongoing supply issues and
01:24input costs.
01:25In the building game, time's money. The longer a build takes, generally the less profitable it is as a result.
01:31Another blow for an industry already under pressure.
01:34Another blow for an industry already under pressure.
01:34other one is blessed by a beginning to
01:35All those things aren't
Comments