Even the most progressive Australian governments crumble under the weight of the housing and construction lobby. In a South American dictatorship, you’d say it’s corrupt and warranted an intervention from, oh…some bright spark like the CIA.
But in Australia, these dudes run that sector with just as much thuggery as the CFMEU, except nicely protected behind closed doors as PwC was for years and years in its tax rorts and so many others, too.
So what’s been happening? In South Australia, if you’re down the socio-economic pecking order and can only afford a low cost new home in the growth zones such as the downmarket end of the Adelaide Hills, where it’s freezing in winter and there’s mould every which way, you need to take whatever the builder dishes out now.
If you end up paying a fortune in heating or cooling bills because the place only needs to comply with old National Construction Code standards (many don’t reach this level), it’s fine. It’s legal. It’s not officially dodgy.
And the lower standards will be frozen for a massive 10 years.
It’s sanctioned by policy from none other than the Labor government of Peter Malinauskas.
His housing and growth minister, Nick Champion, has proudly dropped the need for housing in new growth areas to adhere to the standard in other part of Australia under the 2022 National Construction Code.
In fact, in Mt Barker and low income retiree zones around Victor Harbour and the Fleurieu Peninsula, the standards have reverted back to 2019 levels!
As for the rest of the state, the NCC standard will be frozen at 2022 levels – which is 7 star NatHERS, which is hardly a radical green result in any case.
But there’s more. You may recall we brought you news a few weeks ago – triumphantly – that the nation’s building ministers had agreed that the 2025 edition of the NCC would be a resilient standard, protecting new buildings from the violent weather already on its way and expected to get worse.
So leaky roofs and poor quality materials are likely to degrade and so on.
Champion made his announcement in great style, metaphorically flanked by the Master Builders SA and Housing Industry Association, who countersigned his statement.
The image is indelible – with just a tad of imagination, you can see two white-uniformed medal-bedecked generals, a hand firmly resting on each of the minister’s shoulders – all three smiling for the camera, one a tad uncomfortable.
The result of this announcement is poor insulation, big bills for occupants and housing that is vulnerable to wild weather.
But that’s probably no big deal in a state that seems to have little idea of the level of its building defects. New South Wales has Building Commissioner David Chandler cleaning up the place; we know the Victorian building commissioner came to check out how he was doing it, and we’ve heard other jurisdictions are interested in following.
But in Adelaide, there’s not a lot going on there. One source said facetiously, we hope, “We’re perfect – don’t need a building commissioner”, sending the state’s image a tad deeper into parody.
Another source said the state was very good at sweeping things under the carpet. What is known is that a huge proportion of housing doesn’t meet the applicable NCC standards.
One thing that won’t be swept under the carpet, though, is this bombshell of a 10 year freeze on NCC improvements, at least by the poor suckers who get conned into buying a shiny new house only to find they can’t afford to heat and cool it.
And when Adelaide’s already extreme weather bites, and the place leaks or the walls are built of something as protective as paper mâché, the occupants might find a Westfields to hunker down in. Because shoppers get protected and made super comfortable.
You could be trashing your brand, SA
Poor SA. It’s been so well lauded in the past for its progressive politics, excellent education and green energy. But right now, it’s in danger of trashing its brand.
It’s pulled this retrograde step, apparently, in the hope it can build enough cheap, fast housing to accommodate a doubling of the population it expects in the next 20 years.
But when word gets out of what’s on offer, will people still want to come?
Not everyone has the capacity or knowledge to get an upgrade to make sure the house they buy is fit for purpose.
Adelaide is not exactly on the scientists’ top hit parade for climate resilient places to live in the future, with its forecasts of very hot, dry weather.
If the government wants to attract people, it needs to offer attractions and benefits, not policies that might keep them away in droves.
The way things stand, the only people to benefit are the dudes who stand behind those generals.
But this is not just a South Australian problem.
It’s systemic and rife throughout the nation.
Think about what the housing lobby did to our economy. During Covid, it banged on to the Feds to pump up work for its members, but it didn’t let go until it got a deluge of Big Utes spreading like cane toads.
The big end of town demanded WestConnexes all over the place and loads of tunnels because the engineers and their shareholders needed a capital fix. And now we, the entire nation (well, not everyone), are paying the price of the come-down.
Compare and contrast our economic behaviour with that of China and its big build/big bust of recent years.
The Chinese, confounding all the experts, look like they’ve had the smarts to pivot from construction of high rise towers that remain empty to high/fast/technology and an ultra/green/clean agenda.
The reason they’ve done this is because that’s what the world needs and that’s where the world’s demand is absolutely guaranteed to come from in the future, underpinning the Chinese’ enduring obsession to get very rich.
But we Australia beam with excitement to see the resplendently white uniformed and medalled generals place a hand on each pollie’s shoulders and let the utes roar.
Honestly, we need to do better.