Budget is a time to clean Australia’s house mess
Australia’s current housing crisis has been four decades in the marking, says Federal minister Clare O’Neil. And the “madness” of development red tape is at the root of the issue.
FEDERAL Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says the upcoming budget will be a “housing budget for the country” as the government strives towards its five-year target to build 1.2 million homes.
Addressing the Australian Property Council housing summit, Ms O’Neil said the housing crisis had been building for 40 years, mainly because not enough homes have been built.
As well as lifting supply, the key focus was on improving the situation for renters and helping more Australians into home ownership.
“We see there is more work to be done, and some of that will be done in the budget,” she said.
“Our government is fiercely pro supply, and whatever decisions we make, the end result is that we need to see more housing, not less.”
Ms O’Neil said there was “far too much red tape and regulation” that needed winding back to build the houses Australia needs.
“It is just madness, partly coming from the fact we’ve got three levels of government involved.”
Ms O’Neil said the National Construction code – the main regulatory framework for building – will be simplified and presented to states later this year.
The code had become complicated and costly, she said.
“Tens of thousands of dollars of compliance cost for each apartment built in this country, 600 pages of state and territory variations with different rules for swimming pools and pipes and ramps depending on your postcode – it’s not working, and we are working with states and territories to try and fix it.”
Productivity Commission chairwoman Danielle Wood told the summit homes were taking 40 per cent longer to build now than they did 15 years ago.
“We haven’t got slower at laying bricks, but we have made the process more complicated – a lot of interlocking approvals, hold ups, greater complexity … all showing up in slower build times,” she said.
The commission has estimated regulations add about $200,000 to the cost of a new home, $140,000 of which is from zoning alone.
Ms O’Neil said setting a five-year target to build 1.2 million homes by mid-2029 had already led to dramatic changes.
“We’re trying to achieve a change for the system … where, really, for the first time in decades, the three levels of government and industry are all focused on the same thing,” she said.
“The kind of planning reform we’re seeing happen in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, in WA would’ve been unthinkable five years ago and certainly 10 years ago. So, we are making big progress here.”
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg accused Labor of lacking genuine solutions to the housing crisis.
“Less than two weeks from the Budget we are left wondering what Labor will actually do on housing, on red tape, on green tape, on most things,” he said.
“The only guarantee so far is more uncertainty and the likelihood of lower levels of housing completions.”
