“Senator Bragg’s proposal to dramatically simplify the National Construction Code for housing is a timely contribution to a debate Australia needs to have.

“HIA has been saying for some time that the NCC needs a knock-down rebuild, not another renovation.

“But this should not be confused with a call to simply tear up the existing requirements that underpin the safety, structural integrity and performance of Australian homes.

“HIA is not advocating for a wholesale unwinding of the standards builders are already working to today.

“The much bigger and more immediate concern is the seemingly endless escalation of new requirements being added to the NCC and the growing tendency to use the building code to pursue broader policy objectives.

“The NCC should be a technical building document that sets clear, practical and proportionate minimum requirements for buildings. It cannot become the answer to every social, environmental or policy challenge facing governments.

“Over successive editions, the NCC has become larger, more complex and more expensive to comply with. Builders have absorbed enormous regulatory change and home buyers ultimately pay for it through the price of a new home.

“At a time when Australia desperately needs to build more homes, continuing to load additional requirements onto new housing risks working directly against the nation’s housing affordability and supply objectives.

“Every proposed new requirement may sound reasonable when considered in isolation. But governments need to look at the cumulative impact.

“A few thousand dollars here and another requirement there eventually adds tens of thousands of dollars to the price of a home, increases design and compliance complexity and can push aspiring home buyers out of the market altogether.

“That regulatory escalator has to stop.

“HIA supports strong building standards and there can be no compromise on the fundamental safety and structural integrity of Australian homes.

“The Federal Government’s current NCC modernisation work, combined with the pause on further major changes to the Code, provides an important opportunity to reset and recalibrate the NCC.

“The pause should not simply be a temporary break before the next wave of regulation begins. It should be used by governments and industry to properly examine what belongs in the NCC, how the existing Code can be simplified and made easier to navigate, and how we prevent unnecessary regulatory escalation in the future.

“This is an opportunity to get the balance right, maintaining the safety, quality and performance standards Australians rightly expect, while recognising that housing affordability, buildability and productivity must also be central considerations.

“HIA has called for future NCC amendments to move to a five-year cycle, stronger and more transparent cost-benefit analysis before new requirements are imposed, free access to referenced Australian Standards and greater use of digital tools to make compliance simpler.

“Whether the final residential code is 80 pages, 100 pages or another number is ultimately less important than the principle behind the proposal.

“Australia needs a building code that protects the standards Australians rightly expect from their homes without continually adding new layers of regulation, cost and complexity.

“Builders want to build homes. Home buyers want those homes to be safe, well-built and affordable.

“Those objectives are not mutually exclusive.

“The current pause gives governments a rare opportunity to draw a line in the sand, reset the direction of the NCC and make sure that when the regulatory clock starts again, Australia has a simpler, more practical and more disciplined building code.

“We should not waste that opportunity,” concluded Mr Croft.

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