Overview

• Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has moved all federal housing responsibilities into the Treasury department to centralise efforts on the crisis.
• She argues that 40 years of cumulative planning and construction regulations have made building affordable homes uneconomic.
• A Productivity Commission report shows that residential construction productivity has more than halved in 30 years, with labour productivity down 12%.
• The government’s goal is to complete an average of 240,000 dwellings annually to reach its 1.2 million homes target by mid-2029.
• Opposition members have criticised the plan as overly interventionist, with Liberal housing spokesperson Andrew Bragg calling direct federal funding “crazy” and urging a mix of incentives and penalties for states.