Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Walker, who I know is a fierce advocate of the needs of younger Australians when it comes to housing. The Albanese Labor government is taking decisive action to cut through the red tape and delays in approvals that have held up the construction of more homes. After a decade of delay under the coalition where we saw no investment in social and affordable housing, we're speeding up approvals to build homes more quickly. For too many builders in Australia, it takes longer to get approval for a home than it does to build one, and this has held back housing supply and made it harder for ordinary Australians to get into a home of their own. Our reforms to the EPBC Act will speed up environmental assessments and approvals while strengthening environmental protections.

But we're not waiting for those reforms to commence; we're taking action now. Last year we established a new housing strike team within my department to accelerate assessment of the more than 26,000 homes that were with the department for assessment. Since the announcement of the housing strike team in late August 2025, tens of thousands of new homes have been approved by the Albanese government.