Housing was a big focus of the recent Blair Economic Reform Roundtable in Ipswich, hosted by Federal Member for Blair Shayne Neumann, where a number of participants raised concerns that federal environment laws were holding up new housing developments in the region, particularly in Greater Springfield.

The issue also featured prominently at last week’s national Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra, where there was broad consensus that commonsense changes could reduce the regulatory burden for builders and boost housing supply.

Building on the Albanese Government’s ambitious $43 billion housing agenda, the Government is acting on five further reform areas to build more homes, more quickly.

This includes two areas that can be acted on immediately.

1. Pause and streamline the National Construction Code.

The Government will work with states and territories to pause further residential changes to the National Construction Code (NCC) until the end of the National Housing Accord period (mid-2029), following finalisation of NCC 2025.

This excludes essential safety and quality changes, and it maintains the strong residential standards adopted in 2022, including 7-star energy efficiency.

While this pause is underway, the Government will streamline the NCC through further consultation with stakeholders, including examining how to:

– Streamline and use AI to improve useability of the 3-volume 2000-page NCC to assist tradies, small businesses and households.

– Remove barriers to the uptake of modern methods of construction, including prefab and modular housing that have cost savings built in with energy efficiency.

– Improve how code provisions are developed by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) and consider the appropriate cadence of future NCC updates.

2. Fast track assessment on more than 26,000 homes currently under Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) consideration and speed up assessment of new applications.
The Government will do this by:

– Establishing a new strike team within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to accelerate assessment of the more than 26,000 homes currently with the department for assessment.

– Ensuring better access to the existing rapid EPBC assessment pathway for new applications with new Ministerial guidelines to prioritise robust development applications that provide required information upfront.

– Piloting AI to simplify and speed-up assessments and approvals.

The Albanese Government will take further action on reform ideas raised during the Economic Reform Roundtable, including to:

3. Reduce barriers to more superannuation investment in new housing supply. This includes supporting ASIC to review RG97 which industry forecasts show could unlock 35,000 homes and more than $8 billion of investment in housing.

4. Encourage further uptake of modern methods of construction including prefab housing and other innovative building practices.

5. Work with states and territories to accelerate delivery of planning, zoning, approvals and investment in enabling infrastructure.

Mr Neumann said this was all about speeding up approvals to build more homes more quickly.
“For too many builders here in Blair, it takes longer to get approval for a home than it does to build one.
“In the middle of a housing crisis, this is holding back housing supply and making it harder for local homebuyers to get into a home of their own.

“So, we’re pausing changes to the construction code and speeding up housing approvals without cutting corners on standards. This will deliver faster decisions that will unlock new homes more quickly where it’s appropriate to do so.

“Fast-tracked projects will still need to meet all environmental requirements, but this will incentivise developers to provide all the required information upfront.

“This approach will ensure strong national environmental protections, while also leading to faster decision making, more certainty for industry and more homes for locals in Ipswich, the Somerset Region and Karana Downs area.

“These contributions from the Roundtable will continue to inform the Government’s decisions on economic reform in the lead up to the Federal Budget and beyond.”