The Albanese government has promised to cut red tape and fast track environmental approvals for new homes in an effort to address Australia’s housing crisis.
On Saturday, the government announced plans to pause further residential changes to the National Construction Code and to streamline the assessment of more than 26,000 homes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
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The announcement follows the economic reform roundtable this week, at which housing was a focus. According to the government, there was broad consensus that “commonsense changes could reduce the regulatory burden for builders and boost housing supply”.
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, told Sky News on Sunday the changes were designed to give builders “a bit of room to breathe” and to ramp up housing supply.
“We want our builders doing what they do best, which is building high quality homes for Australians, not seeing them trapped in the back office, filling in forms and dealing with red tape,” she said.
The government said it would work with states and territories to pause further changes to the National Construction Code. It would then consult on ways to streamline the code, including the use of artificial intelligence to help tradies, small business and households in using the three-volume, 2000-page code.
A new “strike team” would be established within the environment department to accelerate the assessment of housing, with plans to use AI to “simplify and speed-up assessments and approvals”.
“The biggest issue we’ve got in the code at the moment is just sheer complexity. This is a code which has ballooned out to more than 2000 pages,” O’Neil said.
“It’s really about streamlining, about simplifying and making sure that we provide builders the very best opportunity to build more homes more quickly.”
The environment minister, Murray Watt, said the measures would deliver faster decisions, unlocking new homes more quickly. “Fast-tracked projects will continue to be required to meet all environmental requirements,” he said.
The federal government said it would also progress other housing reform ideas, such as removing barriers to superannuation investment and increasing the uptake of modern construction methods like prefab housing.
The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, said the Coalition was supportive of the changes, noting the former opposition leader, Peter Dutton, had taken a similar policy to the May federal election.
“It would have saved a lot of time, a lot of effort. If you know, [Labor] just put a post on social media saying, ‘Thanks, Coalition, good idea. We’ll take it up,’” he told Sky News.
Under Dutton, the opposition proposed a 10-year freeze to changes to the code. O’Neil described the alternative policy as a “blunt force instrument” that would have ignored “urgent safety and consumer issues”.
The Property Council of Australia, which has advocated for faster environmental approvals and the adoption of AI in planning, welcomed the announcement.
Chief executive Mike Zorbas described the announcements as “sensible” and a “win” for housing supply.
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“Let’s also put AI to work turbocharging housing delivery. A smart rollout of AI into planning and assessment systems will give decision-makers the clarity they need and save valuable time in delivering new homes,” he said.
Speaking this week on the sidelines of the roundtable, Daniel Mookhey, the New South Wales treasurer, supported a pause in adding new federal regulations to the national construction code, saying it would “certainly” lead to more homes being built.
“If the national code is frozen it gives us a bit more time to get the interactions between national standards and state standards clear,” he said, speaking this week. “But equally, it will give a lot of confidence to people who are looking to build right now.”
But former industry minister Ed Husic said this week he was concerned about a pause to the code.
Husic said the former Coalition government had frozen new homebuilding regulations, only to rush through a mass of changes in a short period of time. “People who’ve lived in older homes with regulations that weren’t as strong understand why livability is such an issue.”
On Tuesday, Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive, Kelly O’Shannassy, called for environmental law reform – including national environment standards, an independent national EPA and better coordination between governments – as she headed into one of the roundtable sessions.
“Faster decisions are crucial, as is stronger nature protection. Australia’s failed national nature law facilitates neither,” she said.
“The national nature law contains a series of convoluted processes with no defined outcomes or transparent institutions – a recipe for slow, unpredictable decisions and ecological and economic decline.”
