Doorstop - 14 August 2026

‍Subjects: Construction costs, Slashing the National Construction Code, Federal building pattern book.

E&OE.........

Simon Croft:

Good afternoon, and welcome here to the Jacaranda Estate. My name is Simon Croft, I'm HIA Chief Executive Industry and Policy. I'm joined today by Senator Andrew Bragg, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness, and Shadow Minister for the Environment.

We're here today in the Jacaranda Estate looking at a fantastic home by McDonald Jones Homes. This type of home is the ideal situation for first home buyers, entry level into the market. But what we see with these types of homes is the additional regulation and red tape that is making them harder and harder to actually get approved, to get financed, and also to build from the perspective from building codes, standards, environmental, and the like.

The Senate Select Committee on Productivity handed down their interim report this week, and this report is a fantastic report that looks at the holistic approach to housing across finance, taxation, planning, building codes, infrastructure delivery, and the like. It was championed by Senator Andrew Bragg, chair of that Committee, and I'll now pass over to Senator Bragg to outline how that report can drive housing construction faster, reduce costs, and get more first home buyers into the market. Thank you, Senator.

Senator Bragg:

Oh, thanks very much, Simon. And thank you to the Housing Industry Association. It's been great to work with Simon and the HIA over these past few months as we've sought to develop a new Basic Australian Standard. And it's fantastic to be here in the seat of Macarthur, in South-Western Sydney, a fantastic growing part of our city and our state, where there are many, many new homes under development. So, I make the point that the Labor Party has completely failed on housing because of their trifecta of corruption, high taxes, and high regulatory model. In terms of the corruption, we see the CFMEU inflating the building costs up to 30% across the country. In terms of taxation, we see $77 billion in new taxes to be applied across the economy, which is going to smash the housing system and make it less affordable with higher rents. And that's what we're already seeing here across New South Wales and across Australia, that ultimately more taxes means fewer homes, higher rents, and lower levels of affordability, which is very bad for Australians.

And then there is a question of regulation. And what this Senate report does is it delivers on our promise that Angus Taylor made just three months ago that we would develop a shorter building standard to help cut the costs of building a home like this. And what we've seen here at Leppington is the huge cost of the National Construction Code in terms of the excessive amount of prescription, which means that it's very expensive to build a house. And so, one of the major issues we have in this country is builders can't afford to build houses, people can't afford to buy them.

So, one of the things that's within our control is the regulation. And the National Construction Code has completely run out of control. Now, the government promised that they would fix it a year ago when they had the productivity roundtable, and all they've done is made it worse. And we've seen incoherence from Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers, Tim Ayres, Clare O'Neil, on how they're going to manage this sprawling 2,000-page National Construction Code. And what we're seeing when we talk to builders across the country is it's so expensive because of this unmitigated disaster of a National Construction Code. So, that's why this Basic Australian Standard will establish a new effective standard for housing, which means that you can buy a new house which is safe, secure, good, and has nice amenity, and that will revolutionise the quality of the debate on housing we're having, because people will have a real choice. People won't be forced into having all the gold-plating that they probably don't want or need when they're buying a first home, for example. And so, these will be safe, secure, and good homes.

And I want to take the opportunity today just to clarify that these will not be substandard houses. And I was asked about this by Sally Sara on ABC yesterday. I didn't properly hear what she said when she asked, "Will the houses be substandard?" The answer is they will not be substandard. They will be strong, safe, secure, and with lovely amenity. It's a bit like buying a car: you can buy a basic car which complies with all the basic standards, or you can buy a super-duper luxury Lamborghini. Now, a basic house will be like a basic car: it'll be safe, it'll be secure, it'll have basic amenity, and that is what this Senate Committee has outlined. So, I'm very confident about taking this up to the Australian people over the next 18 months as we head towards the second half of this electoral term.

Journalist:

What are some of those extras that will be slashed under this plan?

Senator Bragg:

So, under this plan, it will be less prescriptive. So, you won't have to have—let me start again. You won't have to have prescription around how you actually deliver on every single component in the house. So, you know, it won't mandate double glazing, it won't mandate millions and millions of pieces of insulation, it won't mandate ramps, it won't mandate wider corridors, it won't mandate reinforced walls to hold grab rails. So, it won't assume that every Australian is disabled. It will assume that people can make their own arrangements whether they want to have the ramps, whether they want to have more insulation, they can choose. So, I want to be clear about this: there will be insulation, there will be windows, there will be basic amenity, but it won't have layers and layers of compulsory components.

Simon Croft:

Yeah, I might also—the model that we put forward is based in large part on the New Zealand Building Code that sets out the core goals about what a building needs to achieve in the mandatory performance requirements, and then underneath that is allowing further options in how you deliver that. This will also allow innovation. Right now in our building code, it takes decades to get new products accepted into the code. We've got examples of products that were used in the Expo in 1988 in Brisbane that are still not recognised in our building code.

It will also be able to be tailored to the different types of housing that we have in this country, not a one-size-fits-all. So, that's for granny flats, for tiny homes, for air-top houses, for new pattern books as well. For too long we've had our building code over here not even talking to our planning system, our zoning system, or our infrastructure, or environmental approvals. So, this report outlines to remove those disconnected gates and have a centralised approach to this and have some pre-approved designs that can have homes delivered faster and with more certainty for the builders.

I do know from my own experience working back in the '90s when I used to have the building code, it used to fit in the glove box of my car. Now you need to have the back of your ute full with all the codes, the standards, and all the additional pieces around this one. So, this revised approach will go back to those core principles about what a building needs to achieve and then it will provide further options in how it's delivered.

Senator Bragg:

If I can add to that. I mean, there's a very clear choice here. We believe that you should be allowed to construct a cheap, safe, good home in Australia. And we think that cutting the backside out of the regulatory costs is going to help Australians buy a first home, it's going to help builders build more first homes. And the Labor Party believes that you should have every single house full with bells and whistles at a price point that people just can't afford and builders can't build to. So, this is a choice before the Australian people: they can choose to have a basic, cheap, safe house if they want to, because we believe in choice, we believe in the capacity of people to make sound judgments.

Journalist:

How long will this take to roll out?

Senator Bragg:

So, in terms of the enactment of this particular policy, it would require us to win the next election, then call a meeting of the Building Codes Board where we would make our new Basic Australian Standard compulsory, and then we would have the states roll it out across the various jurisdictions.

Journalist:

Okay.

Senator Bragg:

Okay? Great. Thank you.

Simon Croft:

Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Ends]

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