A Liberal frontbencher has acknowledged that the Coalition’s strategy to increase housing availability will involve certain “trade-offs,” indicating that low-income families might have to accept living conditions that are less than ideal.
Andrew Bragg, the Opposition’s spokesperson on housing and homelessness, revealed on Wednesday a bold plan to drastically cut the national housing code from 2,000 pages to a mere 80 if the party wins the election.
During an interview with ABC Radio National on Thursday morning, Bragg was asked if this policy implied that those with lower incomes should put up with inadequate housing. His response was clear: “Yes, definitely.”
Bragg further explained that the push to construct more homes under a simplified code necessarily involves “trade-offs.”
“Facing the reality of our housing affordability crisis, it’s crucial to prioritize having a house over not having one at all,” he stated in the ABC interview. “Hence, our focus must be on building more homes.”
Bragg’s comments follow remarks made by his Liberal colleague and treasury spokesman Tim Wilson, who suggested in some cases people could put “a jumper on in winter rather than spending huge amounts of money” on improving housing quality.
He told ABC RN on Wednesday there should not be a one-size-fits-all policy — such as mandated energy efficiency — for construction.
“There are some places in the country where you will get cold spells or hot spells for a very small amount of the year, whereas for the rest of the year, it’s not necessary,” he said.
“We have a risk that Australians can’t afford to rent or to buy their own home by the government’s own budget design. We need housing stock that meets different needs in different environmental conditions. Queensland is not the same as Tasmania or Victoria. Western Australia is different again.”
Proposal does ‘nothing to fix’ housing crisis, advocate says
Affordable housing advocates told SBS News that stripping back construction regulations is a way for developers to profit from “unliveable” homes.
“Too many renters are already living in homes that are freezing in winter, stifling in summer, riddled with mould and damp, and expensive to heat and cool,” Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said in a statement.
“Older people and people with disability already struggle to find homes they can safely and comfortably live in.”
Azize added that the government should focus on social housing that is “built to last”.
“We have a housing crisis because people cannot afford a home. Building more poor-quality homes does nothing to fix that crisis. It simply gives developers another way to profit from it,” Azize said.
Australian Council of Social Services CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie agreed, adding that construction of social housing should “drastically scale up”.
She described Bragg’s comments as shocking.
“The changes to the building code proposed by Senator Bragg would simply remove costs from the builder and move them onto the household – locking them into higher power bills for decades, deepening inequality, risking lives, leaving future generations with homes that are expensive to run,” she told SBS News.
The Housing Industry Association on Wednesday welcomed Senator Bragg’s announcement, but argued it was more important to disentangle layers of complexity than target a specific size of the code.
Cutting red tape
The national housing codes set minimum requirements for the safety, health, amenity, accessibility, and sustainability of certain buildings, as detailed in over 2,000 pages.
The Coalition’s new standards will focus on cost-effective structural, fire safety and health-related building standards.
Bragg said reducing the code has been a shifting policy for the Coalition.
“This was in Angus Taylor’s budget reply back in May, and we have committed to getting it to 200 pages, but we actually found a way to get it to less than 100 pages. It tends to be by picking up the New Zealand building code, which is about 80,” he explained.
While New Zealand’s building code appears to be about 80 pages long, the country has other compulsory building requirements on durability and energy efficiency, outlined in separate documents that builders must comply with.
Labor announced it would freeze the National Construction Code following its productivity roundtable in mid-2026.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil brushed off calls from the Coalition to cut the construction standards to 200 pages earlier in 2026.
“I’ve talked to builders about that, they laugh their heads off. That is absolutely ridiculous,” O’Neil told the National Press Club in May.
The government is not far off presenting a final plan to the building minister later this year to streamline the code, Treasurer Jim Chalmers told ABC Radio National on Wednesday.
Bragg has also called for the creation of a federal pattern book of model homes that could receive automatic approval from the states and territories.
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.