Construction red tape freeze to speed up housing push on economic roundtable agenda

A freeze or re-write of the national construction code is on the cards as a way of speeding up home building after discussion on the second day of the economic roundtable.

Talks in the Cabinet room on Wednesday morning focused on red tape and housing, with the topic expected to turn to environmental approvals after the brief morning tea break.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil joined the discussion, which canvassed the possibility of freezing the construction code.

The mammoth list of rules builders have to comply with is due for an update next year anyway, but there has been chatter that further changes other than those dealing with urgent defects or safety issues could be put on ice.

The Government has a target to build 1.2 million homes in the five years to mid-2029, but Treasury and the housing sector say that won’t be met at the current rate of construction, in part because of the amount of red tape.

A leaked Treasury briefing paper ahead of the roundtable suggested freezing the code could be a consensus outcome.

One source in the room said there was generally good support for reforming the code, but another said nothing had been settled.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar said the talks on Wednesday morning were “where the rubber really hits the road” on boosting productivity.

“It’s about, how do you get a process underway to reform that (construction) code, to make it simpler?” he said.

“I think there’s a recognition that it’s incredibly complex, that it overreaches at the moment and makes the process unwieldy.”

The Coalition took a policy to the election to freeze the construction code for a decade, but the proposal expected to come out of the roundtable isn’t expected to be as long or as blunt as that.

“Where the National Construction Code is unhelpful, of course it should be paused,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said on Wednesday.

“This Government must do much more than just pause the national construction code in order to get housing supply back on track in this country.”

Earlier, Treasurer Jim Chalmers declared that better living standards for Australians are the “holy grail” for everyone attending the economic roundtable.

He told attendees he was pleased with the constructive engagement around the Cabinet table on day one, having counted about 100 contributions from those present, and urged them to build on the momentum.

“We need to keep front of mind what all of this is about – it is about creating more opportunities for more people in every part of our country, lifting living standards by making our economy more productive,” he said.

“That is the holy grail for us, and that’s the focus of today. But not just today, all of the work that happens after here as well.”