newsline24

Coalition promises to drastically cut net overseas migration and housing construction code

The Coalition has promised to drop net overseas migration to under 180,000 a year over the forward estimates, including by cutting family and international student visas, as part of a push to open up more housing supply.

The shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg will be up at the national press club and says the opposition will strip the 2000 page national construction code, which he says makes it “illegal to build a cheap safe house”, down to an 80-page “basic Australian standard”.

The current permanent migration level is set to 185,000 while the net overseas migration figure has been trending downwards from post-covid peaks and is anticipated to be 245,000 for 2026–27.

Net overseas migration is the total number of people coming into the country against those going out – which means it can be tricky to have total control over.

Bragg will tell the press club that the government has sat over a shortfall of 130,000 dwellings which can be closed if the NOM drops under 180,000 over four years.

A NOM reduction on this scale is manageable and in line with reductions we have managed in recent history – for example in 2009-2010 when the NOM declined from 300,000 to 175,000 in around 18 months.

This will be achieved through a higher share of skilled migrant workers linked to jobs that meet Australian industry needs. This includes more reductions in other streams like family, international students and other temporary migrants.

Key events

‘Some people call it putting on a jumper’: should energy efficiency standards in housing be optional?

The opposition is considering it.

Andrew Bragg says under his 80-page national construction code essential structural, fire safety and health requirements will be compulsory but additional features will be “optional”.

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, is in the RN Breakfast hot seat after Jim Chalmers and is asked whether that sounds about right to him.

Wilson says there are “risks on all side” in whether you make energy efficiency standards compulsory or not, and that different parts of the country have different climates so there shouldn’t be a “one size fits all approach”.

We have a risk that Australians can’t afford to rent or to buy their own home by the government’s own budget design.

There are some places in the country where you will get cold spells or hot spells for a very small amount of the year, whereas for the rest of the year, it’s not necessary … Some people call it putting a jumper on in winter rather than spending huge amounts of money, tens of thousands of dollars.

CommBank records bumper $11bn profit

Jonathan Barrett

Commonwealth Bank has recorded a bumper $10.9bn full year cash profit, up 7%, after recording strong growth in home and business lending, despite recent weakness in the housing market.

The robust result, for the 12 months to 30 June, was largely locked in before mortgage volumes started to fall in response to a series of interest rate hikes and Labor’s investor tax changes, announced in May.

CBA told shareholders this morning that while the economy had remained resilient, growth was slowing with “higher interest rates and inflation placing uneven pressure on households incomes and economic activity”.

There are signs of distress among some of the bank customers, with arrears among personal loan customers surging. Arrears for home loans and credit cards have also ticked higher in recent months, although they remain at modest levels.

The bank declared a final dividend of $2.70, representing a 10c increase on the last half year dividend.

Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

Bragg ‘bit late to the party’ on reforming construction code: Chalmers

Jim Chalmers says the government is already acting on simplifying the 2000-page construction code to make it easier to build houses in Australia.

Today the shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg will announce that the Coalition wants to slash that code down to 80-pages, but Chalmers says he’s “late to the party”.

The government has frozen the code for four years, and Chalmers says a revamped code is coming soon:

We’re going to present a final plan to building ministers later this year and that will streamline the code, reduce variations, improve where the provisions are too complicated, make the code relevant in an age of AI.

Don’t judge the housing market over a few months of data, says Chalmers

The government is facing heat over a cooling housing market across Australia, which the treasurer says is due to a range of factors, not just the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax announced in the May budget.

Jim Chalmers is on ABC RN Breakfast this morning welcoming the Reserve Bank’s decision to hold rates yesterday, and says that there have been several housing downturns in recent decades.

You shouldn’t judge the housing market by volatility over a period of a few months.

If you think about house prices in this country in the 2000s, even with that quite remarkable house price growth over that period. If you take the last 10 years or so, we’ve actually seen prices go down at least seven times by our count … The Reserve Bank Governor said yesterday, I’ve said on a number of occasions, the private sector market economists have said as well, what we’re seeing in the housing market is a consequence of a whole range of factors, economic conditions, interest rates, policy changes, not any one factor on their own.

Asked about data from Westpac showing a dropping number of home loan applications, Chalmers takes the same argument, that “you shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on a few months of data”.

Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

‘The Liberals have absolutely lost the plot’ says O’Neil on melon-gate

The regular Wednesday TV sparring match between the housing minister, Clare O’Neil, and shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has spent half the morning debating … you guessed it … melon-gate.

O’Neil says the opposition has frankly “lost the plot” by referring the leak of a diplomatic note sent by Japan to the Australian federal police.

The Liberals have absolutely lost the plot here. They are referring this podcast matter to the Australian federal police. My personal view is that the Australian federal police should be allowed to focus on their job, which is keeping Australians safe and fighting crime for Australians.

Cash says it’s totally justified for the police to dedicate their time to investigating that leak to the media, and takes aim at O’Neil for defending the PM:

This has now gone from embarrassing to extraordinary. A sensitive diplomatic cable from one of our closest allies has ended up in the media, and the AFP should investigate that. But I actually think the hypocrisy from the Labor women like Clare – that is an utter disgrace. You have just defended the grubby, dirty comments of our prime minister.

Let this be over soon one way or another.

Are the Coalition 100% set on cutting net overseas migration to 180,000?

Despite Andrew Bragg’s speech being sent to the media overnight, this morning the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, doesn’t seem to want to lock in the 180,000 net overseas migration target.

Speaking to News24, Wilson was asked a couple of times about the details of Bragg’s announcement but wouldn’t commit to the figure.

He said, “I’ll leave Senator Bragg’s speech in his National Press Club address to Senator Bragg” and stuck to more general statements about migration intake in Australia.

Asked directly whether the Coalition is looking at the 180,000 target, Wilson replies:

I don’t think you should bank that at all. Let’s just wait and see, firstly, what Senate Bragg’s saying in his speech – and we haven’t made an announcement about where we’re going to be going into the next election – but our focus is actually about what we need to do to invest in the long-term growth and success of our country.

Coalition promises to drastically cut net overseas migration and housing construction code

The current permanent migration level is set to 185,000 while the net overseas migration figure has been trending downwards from post-covid peaks and is anticipated to be 245,000 for 2026–27.

Net overseas migration is the total number of people coming into the country against those going out – which means it can be tricky to have total control over.

Bragg will tell the press club that the government has sat over a shortfall of 130,000 dwellings which can be closed if the NOM drops under 180,000 over four years.

A NOM reduction on this scale is manageable and in line with reductions we have managed in recent history – for example in 2009-2010 when the NOM declined from 300,000 to 175,000 in around 18 months.

This will be achieved through a higher share of skilled migrant workers linked to jobs that meet Australian industry needs. This includes more reductions in other streams like family, international students and other temporary migrants.