The government's red tape is choking Australia’s housing supply

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This Construction Code gives Australians the confidence that their homes aren't being built in a shoddy way… we certainly believe that we should have modest, regular changes to the code that keep pace with construction methods," said Ed Husic in November last year.

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“The National Construction Code is a really important document… But what needs to cease is this persistent change to the code so that our building industry gets on top of one set of changes, absorbs costs and new ways of doing things, only to find the code changed again," added Claire O'Neil in a Financial Review op-ed this month.

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This is the story of the Albanese government: mixed messaging and politics over productivity, all at the expense of the one thing they consistently promise to do — build more housing.

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As the Federal Government’s Economic Reform Roundtable (tellingly, no longer called the Productivity Roundtable) meets, housing will no doubt be a focus. But before the government announces yet more changes to its already convoluted housing plan, here are the facts of what has been delivered so far.

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In its first term, Labor introduced 5,034 new regulations into the economy, including more than 1,500 in Treasury and Infrastructure, where housing sits. They also brought in over 400 new laws, slugging Aussie businesses with a $4.8 billion compliance cost.

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Labor presided over yet another rejig of the National Construction Code. It now stretches to more than 2,000 pages and references over 150 Australian standards. Each of those standards is at least 50 pages long, often cross-referencing thousands more. The NCC is the very definition of bureaucratic red tape.

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The Coalition went to the election promising a 10-year freeze on the code. Labor bagged us. Now they want to copy us. Perhaps they should change their colour to blue, not red.

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Labor’s housing policies are cruel and ridiculous. Red-tape consultants are thriving while record numbers of construction firms collapse. Homelessness is at record levels, yet the government talks only of social and affordable housing. Construction costs are rising, even as more federal money is being poured into housing than ever before.

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Albanese, Chalmers and O’Neil are letting all Australians down. The irony of Labor’s red-tape obsession is that it has undermined its own housing agenda. After three years, it is clear Labor has failed to deliver more supply.

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Under the Coalition, Australia was building close to 200,000 homes a year. Under Labor, that figure has plunged to barely 170,000.

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Labor went to the election promising 1.2 million new homes by 2030 through its National Housing Accord. The truth is they will not even build one million. No state or territory is projected to meet its share.

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Last term, the Coalition discovered Labor’s signature housing policy, the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, built zero new houses. Instead, this money was spent acquiring existing homes, making Australia’s housing crisis worse.

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Now Labor is doubling down on its big-government approach. It will expand the Home Guarantee Scheme so it is no longer means tested and entirely uncapped, and spend another $10 billion to build 100,000 new homes. In effect, Labor plans to become both a property developer and a government mortgage insurer.

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Instead of examining the bottlenecks constraining private builders, Labor is usurping them.

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In June this year, Clare O’Neil announced, “The Commonwealth is back in the hard work of financing and partnering to build new housing.”

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The Commonwealth should not be building houses. It should be asking why builders, plumbers and trade contractors are going out of business. Many of the reasons stem from new rules Labor itself introduced in its first term, piling on regulatory burden.

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I have met with stakeholders in the housing and construction sector that describe insane conditions that Labor has helped introduce — like no concrete pours after 10am, strict limits on daily working hours, and stop-work triggers for inclement weather. These rules do nothing but drive up costs and further price people out of the market.

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Labor cannot have it both ways. It cannot claim to support construction while imposing regulations that make building harder, slower and more expensive.

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It seems Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil have read the book Abundance. It is incredible that they have had to consult a book written by Americans in America to finally discover their policy disasters.

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If Labor now wants to pivot and follow the Coalition’s lead in cutting housing red tape, it will be like turning the Titanic. Nevertheless, we remain committed to being constructive in the national interest. Your move, Labor.

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