Business calls for housing battle to make way for reform

The Business Council of Australia is calling for politics to be set aside and leaders to focus on changes to boost housing supply and affordability, including scrapping stamp duty.

The BCA has debunked several common reasons cited for the housing crisis, such as high immigration and international student numbers and the number of vacant properties, in a major report calling for reform.

Rather, houses are taking longer to approve and build and are drastically less affordable while more are needed as household sizes shrink.

It comes with a political fight breaking out over whether the Commonwealth is already funding the infrastructure needed to unlock land for new homes as the housing battleground heats up ahead of the Federal election.

The BCA has drawn on expert research to call for an overhaul of planning and zoning rules, faster approvals, ready infrastructure and replacing stamp duty — “a horrible tax that stops Australians getting into a home” — with land taxes.

“We want the Federal Government to create a new national reform fund, like the one created in the 1990s, that incentivises States to fix regulation and planning bottlenecks that hold back homes being built,” chief executive Bran Black said, calling for a sum of at least $10 billion.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has announced $5b for councils and developers to build the roads, water, power and other infrastructure needed to make new developments happen.

But Cabinet minister Murray Watt said this was “pretty much exactly the same plan” as the Labor Government’s existing policy, pointing to its $1.5b housing support program.

“I don’t think people really care whether the money is directed through States, Territories, local governments or private developers, they just want to see that work done,” he told ABC’s Insiders.

It has already given $1b to the State and Territory governments who have to spend the money by mid-2026 on enabling infrastructure and building new social housing.

Government sources say WA’s plan for spending its $105m portion has been approved and works including power and water infrastructure are set to start within weeks.

A further $450m is now being allocated to local councils and state governments for road and public transport upgrades, utilities or community services such as parks and public libraries.

The rest of the money has already gone to local councils to increase their “human infrastructure” and speed up planning approval times.

However, shadow finance minister Jane Hume claims the money has “gone to the States and stalled” rather than being spent on “shovel-ready projects”.

“This is the bottleneck — that enabling infrastructure on greenfields and brownfields sites will make those new home builds a reality and will make it affordable for all new Australians to get out there and buy their first home,” she told Sky News.