Tell 'em they're dreamin' on target

Wednesday 16 July 2025

Brendan Kearns

Geelong Advertiser

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The Coalition's acting housing spokesman has labelled the federal  government's target to build 1.2 million new houses by 2029 as  "delusional".
 
 Senator James Paterson told ABC's RN Breakfast the targets had to be  achievable.
 
 "It's certainly a good thing to have targets and it is a good thing to  be ambitious, but the ambition has to be realistic and achievable and not  delusional," he said.
 
 "And I think we're now getting into that level of delusion because a  target of 1.2 million homes by 2029 would require the government to be  building about 250,000 homes a year when only about 170,000 are being  constructed, which is a fall from under the previous Coalition government of  about 180,000 a year.
 
 "So we're going backwards ... and it's time for either radical policy  change to deliver those houses or acceptance that target is not going to be  said as Treasury says."
 
 Senator Paterson's statement comes after Treasury advice, warning the target  "would not be met", was accidentally given to the ABC in a freedom  of information release.
 
 Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government would reach the target but  acknowledged it would need to "do better".
 
 "Under current trajectories, we would fall short," he said.
 
 Senator Paterson was asked whether the Coalition needed to rethink its  position on reducing net migration to bring in more skilled workers to help  address housing shortages.
 
 He said all the party's policies were under review and that the Coalition had  an "ambitious" policy at the previous election on housing,  including allowing first-home buyers to deduct mortgage payments against  their income tax Asked about possible areas to increase development, he said  it would explore supply on boundaries of cities and within the existing  "footprint" of cities.