Australia's housing system is broken. We currently build nearly half as many homes per person as we did post World War II, regulation between different levels of government is dysfunctional and our country is woefully lacking in the skilled tradespeople needed to meet our housing demand.
That blunt assessment came from federal Housing Minister Clare O'Neil herself during the week. The minister used a National Press Club speech to paint a stark picture of the challenges of dealing with our wicked housing dilemma.
"Governments - Labor and Liberal - have not done enough to fairly house Australians, for decades. In their retreat, there was, I believe, a hope that a functional private housing market would work for all. But that is not reality," Ms O'Neil said.
In acknowledging the multifaceted nature of the problem - Ms O'Neil correctly noted there is no one silver bullet solution - she made an impassioned argument that prefabricated housing could be an important, missing part of the equation.
The minister's enthusiasm for a national "kit of parts" that can allow modular components to be bolted together quickly to speed up construction is a useful contribution to the national debate. In other countries such as Sweden, prefab construction makes up the majority of new house builds.
It also comes hot on the heels of the sizeable political risk this government is taking by attacking tax incentives that have for years distorted the market for existing housing in favour of investors.
But one of the biggest handbrakes remains good old-fashioned bureaucracy. As the minister said, over decades three levels of well-meaning government have created a red tape thicket that builders need a bulldozer to get through.
Over the years it has become harder, more expensive and it takes longer to build houses in this country and much of the blame can be sheeted home to excessive bureaucracy. Ambitious targets to build 1.2 million homes by 2029 is already now 77,000 behind, or 30 per cent slower than the timeline needed to meet the target.
As the Housing Industry Association has pointed out, these targets won't be met without co-ordinated action across all levels of government, and has advocated for a "use it or lose it" approach to funding. Cutting through the paperwork that keeps builders at desks in the site office instead of overseeing construction is a difficult but necessary task.
The government has already shown a willingness to make tough calls - it must pull all policy levers if we are to get back to previously possible construction speeds. Streamlining approvals, regulation and paperwork would be a good place to start.
