Senator Andrew Bragg

Labor’s 5% deposit scheme was sold as help for first home buyers. In reality, it has pump primed entry level prices, and pushed younger Australians into larger and riskier loans just to get a foothold. afr.com/property/resid…

You should be allowed to build a cheap house.

Labor’s housing hellhole rolls on. theaustralian.com.au/business/margi…

Mum and dad landlords ❌ Super landlords ✅ afr.com/policy/tax-and…

We will engage with other Senators to ensure we get more transparency from the Housing Australia hellhole.

We have all heard about Labor’s touted housing taxes in the upcoming Budget. But you cannot tax your way out of a housing supply shortage.

We also know that Housing Australia has spent at least $300 million since the 2025 election and they are mandated to spend at least $500 million each year from the HAFF - but greater transparency is needed.

And how much money has been spent? It seems Labor’s HAFF started with $10 billion, has built only a handful of houses after over 2.5 years, and now has $11.4 billion with money sitting in the bank.

I strongly believe that there should be a pre-appointment vetting hearing in Parliament for the head of Housing Australia. It would give the Parliament and the public a chance to assess whether an appointee understands their brief, is up to the task, and can effectively lead.

Instead of building houses, Labor has built a housing bureaucracy to oversee its housing gimmicks: Housing Australia. Housing Australia is not just dysfunctional, it is making the housing crisis worse.

By focusing on the core standards necessary for safety as the basis. And adding anything else as optional. So a graduated NCC that delivers a basic cheap house for Australians should be considered.

The National Construction Code (NCC) still stands at some 2,350 pages. It remains a handbrake on supply. The Senate Committee heard the ambition of the industry to get back to an NCC closer to the original 200 pages.

If you want to build a cheap house, you should be allowed to build a cheap house. In Australia, that’s illegal.

The Property Council of Australia says one of the key issues is that we are simply not turning building approvals into completions. They say current data shows that 75 per cent of apartments approved in Sydney since 2020 have not progressed to construction or reached completion.

We desperately need to lift housing supply. But the latest ABS data for the December 2025 quarter show Labor are almost 100,000 homes short of what’s needed to meet their own 1.2 million new homes target by mid-2029.

Build to Rent, playing with ASIC Regulatory Guide 97, and the HAFF have all been geared to help institutional investors become big landlords. Now we see another plank emerging to replace mum and dads with institutions.

Labor’s logic appears to be that it is a good thing to reduce investment by Australians in housing but simultaneously promote institutional investment.

But politically it will lead Labor down a dangerous path: they will have to declare their tax plan is going to fix the housing crisis.

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer will have to say that their new housing taxes will fix the nation’s housing crisis or make it materially better. But we know that it won’t. This will haunt the government.

If the government plays with these taxes it will be bad for the country. Because fewer houses will be constructed as a result. And it will reduce investor confidence.

It is completely irresponsible to lift any taxes on housing in the midst of a housing crisis. It doesn’t matter if it’s for new or old housing.