The Albanese government will pause most changes to the National Construction Code (NCC) until 2029 and lean on artificial intelligence to speed up planning and environmental approvals - moves it says will get builders "on site, not filling in forms."

Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has framed the package as a red-tape blitz to clear bottlenecks in a system she says has become "uneconomic" for building. The plan includes a new Environment Department "strike team" to triage stalled projects and fast-track approvals for tens of thousands of homes. It will also scope the use of AI to help people navigate the 2,000-page NCC and automate routine checks.

Yet even as Canberra sells AI as a shortcut, the leaked Treasury brief that foreshadowed these steps also admitted the real jam: a backlog of about 30,000 homes in the federal environmental pipeline. That same advice floated a "National AI Plan" to push approvals faster - an approach that alarms people who don't want algorithms picking winners in their suburbs.

ARTICLE IMAGE ALT

A freeze that divides the industry

Master Builders backs a pause to let industry catch up. "Our ask is that you pause it for residential, you review the whole document and we ensure that there is a level of consistency," chief executive Denita Wawn told the ABC.

Others aren't convinced. Engineers Australia warned a long freeze risks locking in lower-quality, less resilient homes just as we try to lift supply. "Without a forward-looking, nationally consistent code that supports innovation and ensures quality, Australia risks falling short of its housing targets," CEO Romilly Madew said this week.

Even Labor voices are wary. Former industry minister Ed Husic said pausing the code risks "repeating the bad mistakes of the Coalition."

AI in approvals: speed vs control

AI can help surface rules, flag missing documents, and cut duplicate steps. But it also concentrates power in black-box software. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner says public entities using AI must be transparent, limit data collection and keep human oversight—especially where personal information is involved. The Digital Transformation Agency now requires agencies to publish AI transparency statements describing what systems they use and how decisions are made. In plain terms: people affected by an AI-assisted decision should know it, and be able to challenge it.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman's new guide on automated decision-making goes further: if algorithms are used, agencies must build in human review, explainability, and fairness checks. That's a high bar for any "strike team" working at speed.

The immigration headwind the plan barely touches

Even if AI shaves months off approvals, the demand side keeps climbing. The ABS reports net overseas migration (NOM) added 446,000 people in 2023-24—down from the 2022-23 record, but still historically high. Migrant arrivals totalled 667,000, with temporary students the largest group at 207,000. Those are real people competing for rental stock today, not paper forecasts.

On top of that flow, Home Affairs figures show there were 522,183 student visa holders in Australia as at 31 December 2024, and 183,995 student visas were granted in the first half of 2024-25 alone. Temporary Graduate visa holders stood at 195,304 at the same date. In employer-sponsored migration, grants under the 482/TSS program jumped to 68,200 in 2024-25 (to 30 June), with 119,440 primary visa holders in Australia - a 31 per cent rise year on year. None of this includes visitors or bridging visas.

Treasury says NOM will fall over the next few years (a 2024-25 forecast of about 260,000 was widely cited), but official projections have been revised repeatedly and depend on program settings that still admit large numbers on temporary visas. Forecasts don't pay the rent; arrivals do.

Will the approvals blitz move the dial?

Environment Minister Murray Watt has begun clearing the decks on nature law reforms and points to quicker project decisions as a productivity fix. But his department also concedes the national backlog is substantial and that streamlining under the EPBC Act must still protect the environment - another area where AI triage could collide with community expectations.

The government insists safety changes to the code won't be frozen, and that AI will assist, not replace, human decision-makers. Still, critics note Labor attacked a similar Coalition freeze last year as a recipe for "shoddy homes", and worry that a long pause entrenches today's standards while energy bills, heat risk, and defect rates bite households for decades.

What to watch

  1. Transparency: Will agencies publish plain-English AI statements for planning tools and give affected residents a human appeal path, as required by DTA policy and privacy guidance?
  2. Quality vs speed: Does the NCC pause become a crutch, or will ministers use the breathing space to simplify and improve the code, not just shelve updates? Engineers Australia, consumer groups and insurers will press this point.
  3. Population settings: If student and temporary work flows stay high, approvals alone won't ease rents or prices. The ABS arrival data and Home Affairs visa grants suggest demand will outpace AI-enabled marginal gains.

Bottom line

Freezing code changes and wiring AI into approvals reads like a quick fix. It may clear some blockages and help small builders navigate rules. But unless Canberra fronts up to the scale of temporary visa intakes and student flows alongside permanent migration—and keeps humans, not algorithms, in charge of local decisions—Australians will see another tech-led promise that doesn't deliver a roof they can afford. The nation that built its suburbs with its own hands wants more than faster forms; it wants homes that are safe, affordable and ours.