Australia politics live: Bragg to outline Coalition plans to heavily cut net migration and shred 96% of house construction code
The Australian Coalition has pledged to reduce net overseas migration to under 180,000 annually to address the national housing supply crisis. Additionally, they plan to overhaul the national construction code to simplify building standards and reduce costs.
Why it matters
Migration policy is a central point of contention in Australian politics, directly linked to the current housing affordability and availability crisis.
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.
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