Incredible video shows the aftermath of Sydney's lockdown construction ban with empty worksites dotting the city as building firms reveal the horrible toll on their workers
- Drone footage above Sydney CBD and eastern suburbs showed the ban's impact
- About 250,000 tradesmen have been forced to down tools due to the shutdown
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian so far resisted calls to end two-week ban early
- She has also refused to rule out extending industry shutdown beyond July 30
- Sydney building supplier Luke Caridi said he has lost 90 per cent of his clients
Astonishing footage of empty worksites across Sydney has shown the devastating impact of the city's Covid-19 construction ban - as building bosses reveal the debilitating toll the lockdown has taken on their workers.
All construction sites across Greater Sydney were forced to close for two weeks from Monday to reduce transmission of the highly-contagious Delta variant.
About 250,000 tradesmen have been forced to down tools because of the shutdown - which is costing the NSW economy $1billion a week.
Despite calls from the building industry, unions and Business NSW to end the ban early, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday refused to rule out extending the industry shutdown beyond July 30.
'We'll be able to do that as soon as we have a sense in the next week of what impact [of] the harsh restrictions have had on the community,' she said.
Drone footage taken above King Street in the Sydney CBD and the city's eastern suburbs as the ban came into place showed how work on everything from apartment buildings to residential constructions has ground to a complete halt.
Industry giant Multiplex alone has shut five sites across Sydney - which employed more than 2,000 construction workers - as the city endures a strict stay-at-home lockdown.
South-west Sydney building supplier Luke Caridi said he had lost 90 per cent of his clients because of the shutdown - forcing him to put most of his 24 workers on annual leave.
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'I'm stressed, but I'm more stressed for my staff,' the general manager of Sefton-based Sand4U told The Daily Telegraph.
'It's not just the financial side it's the mental side. These people are used to turning up for work and now they don't have that.'
He said in a normal working week he would send 1,000 tonnes of building supplies to his clients, which include some of the country's largest firms such as Meriton and Parkview.
CJ Construction in Lilli Pilli in Sydney's south meanwhile face having to lay off their staff if the ban is extended beyond the end of the month.
Astonishing footage has shown worksites left empty across Sydney amid the city's Covid-19 construction shutdown
Drone footage taken above King Street in the Sydney CBD and the city's eastern suburbs as the ban came into place showed how construction had come to a grinding halt
'There's a lot of tradies out here that work and live week-to-week. If it goes on for too long I'd have to pull the pin, and say I can't afford to keep you,' the firm's owner Clinton Hood said.
Business NSW CEO Daniel Hunter has called for the state government to end the industry shutdown a week early 'in a safe but reduced way'.
'It will give those businesses without a proper COVID-safe plan time to develop one, and give an opportunity for businesses to order and receive materials in time for a recommencement of trade,' he said.
Masked pedestrians walk past empty construction sites in Barangaroo in Sydney on Tuesday
Pictured is the Barangaroo Station construction site on Tuesday. Local construction sites in Sydney have been shut down until at least July 30 to slow the spread of the highly-contagious Delta Covid-19 virus
A closed construction site is pictured in Fairfield in Sydney's south-west on Sunday. The shutdown is costing the NSW economy $1billion a week
Ms Berejiklian on Wednesday though appeared to walk back on her 'assurance' on Tuesday the two week ban across Greater Sydney would 'definitely' be lifted on July 31.
'We know any form of human interaction is spreading the disease and that's why we just need to stop that human interaction,' she said.
JP Morgan economists estimate Greater Sydney accounts for 70 per cent of construction in NSW.
An empty construction site is pictured in Barangaroo, Sydney on Monday. Business NSW CEO Daniel Hunter has called for the state government to end the industry shutdown a week early 'in a safe but reduced way
An empty construction site is pictured at Marsden Park in Sydney's far north-west as the ban came into force on Monday
They estimate for every month the restrictions are in place, economic growth will slow by 0.5 per cent.
But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended the decision on construction sites on Monday.
'Having the risk of thousands and thousands of people being mobile at the one time, many of them coming from communities that have had cases, was too big a risk,' she said.
NSW recorded 110 local cases overnight - at least 60 of whom were circulating in the community for part or all of their infectious period.
Since the Greater Sydney outbreak began on June 16, there have been 1,528 cases and five people have died.
