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Simon Croft
Chief Executive, Industry & Policy
Forty-nine pre-roundtables, 900-plus submissions and three days of talks at Parliament House about how to boost Australians’ living standards have come to an end – but what did they achieve? Arising out of the Treasurer’s Economic Reform Roundtable, the Australian Government is now targeting 10 priority reform areas across the economy. These are:
- Road-user charging for EV drivers equal to those driving petrol and diesel vehicles
- Abolishing more nuisance tariffs – nuisance tariffs are defined as tariffs that raise little revenue, have negligible benefits for producers, but impose compliance burdens
- Reforming the National Construction Code
- Accelerating Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) legislation
- Dealing with approvals backlog for homes
- Dropping excessive regulation
- ‘Tell us once’ bill so companies and individuals are not asked to supply the same information over and over again for different purposes
- AI in the public service to improve operational output
- National AI capability plan
- Investor Front Door pilot – the government will establish the service to consider major investment proposals.
Housing front and centre on the agenda
HIA was happy to see housing feature prominently at the Economic Reform Roundtable. There was unanimous support on the need to cut the excessive red tape that is significantly impacting our industry’s ability to deliver homes faster and at an affordable price.
Equally it was pleasing to see the first actions out of the Economic Reform Roundtable establish a pause on further changes to the NCC, extending timelines for future changes and removing barriers to support greater uptake of modern construction methods.
A pause on further major changes to the NCC and reviewing the role and function of the ABCB is an important first step, as the NCC has grown exponentially in volume and complexity over the past decade. A reset on the way the NCC is developed and implemented is critically needed.
With respect to NCC 2025, the focus is intended to be on changes for commercial buildings. For residential buildings, changes are limited to safety and quality issues. HIA has raised concerns with several proposed changes for NCC 2025 for housing and apartments – we will wait to see the final details and update members once we have confirmation. Reforming the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act has been one of HIA’s key priorities over the past few years.
This outdated, cumbersome and duplicative set of environmental laws has seen several tens of thousands of projects held up for years, adding significant costs and uncertainty to the future pipeline of housing projects.
The announcement to clear the significant backlog of projects stuck awaiting environmental approvals as first order business with a dedicated strike team was one of HIA’s key asks ahead of this year’s federal election. Clarifying the approach to offsets is another priority item for HIA.
Productivity Commission Inquiries
In the leadup to the Treasurer’s Economic Reform Roundtable, HIA made a suite of comprehensive submissions to the Treasurer and to the Productivity Commission who are undertaking a number of important inquiries themselves related to tax, productivity, regulation setting, skills and the government’s net zero agenda.
With the current discussion on productivity and criticisms being levelled at industry productivity, we have highlighted, through our submission and media commentary, that the process of home building is quick and efficient. Government red tape and excessive regulation have been the key reasons why it is so difficult to increase supply and industry productivity has stalled.
Our submissions highlight that the industry is weighed down by increasing taxes and regulation, skills shortages, uncertainty in policymaking and rising costs.
These all contribute to making housing less affordable to rent or buy and industry less productive due to more time navigating red tape than having nail bags on building homes.
We have recommended the Economic Reform Roundtable implements key recommendations across five core themes:
- Boost industry productivity and remove barriers to greater innovation
- Reduce the regulatory burden through building codes and planning reform
- Address the industry’s skill shortages
- Increase and encourage foreign investment and improved tax and financial systems
- Lift the capacity and resilience of small building businesses.
Underpinning these core pillars we are seeking a suite of detailed policy reforms. Our submissions received extensive media coverage, including a number of front-page features, radio and television interviews, with more media coverage expected over the coming week.
Ministerial meetings
Before the Treasurer’s Roundtable, HIA met with the following key federal ministers and department heads to inform the agenda:
- Minister for Housing, Clare O’Neil
- Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles
- Minister for Small Business, Anne Aly
- Minister for the Environment, Murray Watt
- Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen
- Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Amanda Rishworth.
We also met with and provided our submissions to the business industry representatives attending the Treasurers Roundtable and the Opposition.
We attended Senator Matt Canavan’s ‘real productivity roundtable’ where we outlined the barriers to greater housing supply and the impact excessive regulation is having on industry productivity and chronic skills shortages.
Turning around the Titanic
The announcements over the past few weeks show some positive green shoots in governments responding to our calls to address the key issues impacting members.
But these measures are not going to turn around the Titanic. Much bolder reforms are needed across all levels and all areas of government policy settings, and HIA will continue to fight hard for members to get those broader structural issues addressed.
Want to know more about how HIA’s works to improve our industry across all levels of government? Go to Advocacy.
First published on 25 November 2025.