Latest news with #AndrewLeigh
West Australian
3 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
How red tape removal became a progressive rallying cry
Conservative politicians often make hay with calls to slash red tape and limit the ever-expanding reach of big government bureaucracy. But progressive politicians who care about housing affordability, the clean energy transition and encouraging quality research should likewise have over-regulation in their sights, argues Labor MP Andrew Leigh. Despite being a rich society, a quiet accumulation of obstacles has prevented Australia providing its citizens' basic needs, the federal assistant minister for charities, competition, treasury and now productivity says. Take, for example, Dr Leigh's home town of Canberra. Faced with insufficient housing supply and rising unaffordability, the ACT government introduced a new planning system in 2023, intended to improve flexibility and clarity. But greater flexibility meant greater complexity, more documentation requirements and slower approval timelines. Building consents more than halved. Whereas, in the mid 1960s, when the national capital was being developed at "breath-taking" speed, 2400 new homes were being built on average each year. In 2024, only 2180 new dwellings were greenlit in the ACT. The go-slow in approvals pathways is not confined to housing, with clean energy projects suffering from delay and deferral and stifling administration in the university sector holding back great Australian minds from realising world-changing research. Slow, fragmented, and over-engineered systems are making it harder to get approval for the things Australia needs. "And the consequences are visible everywhere - from rising rents and overcrowding, to the growing number of people priced out of the communities they grew up in," Dr Leigh will tell the Chifley Research Centre in Melbourne on Tuesday. His speech, influenced by the work of US journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, calls for Australia to adopt an "abundance agenda": for a progressive supply-side push to fix falling productivity and meet the nation's needs. "The abundance agenda isn't about building without limits. It's about removing the limits that no longer serve us," he says. "Ambition without capability leads to frustration. Vision without delivery erodes trust. If we want the next decade to be one of shared prosperity and real progress, we have to be able to build." The solution is not just to slash red tape and remove systems that are designed to keep risk in check. Public institutions too often lack the capability to evaluate risks, make bold decisions, and stick to timelines. Upskilling them is essential. "One reason for over-regulation is fear - of failure, of blame, of reputational damage," Dr Leigh says. "The result is systems that push decisions upward, delay risk, and rely on external consultants to validate internal judgment. "Reversing this trend won't happen overnight. But it starts with institutions that are trusted to act - not just to review, approve and regulate, but to enable."
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
How red tape removal became a progressive rallying cry
Conservative politicians often make hay with calls to slash red tape and limit the ever-expanding reach of big government bureaucracy. But progressive politicians who care about housing affordability, the clean energy transition and encouraging quality research should likewise have over-regulation in their sights, argues Labor MP Andrew Leigh. Despite being a rich society, a quiet accumulation of obstacles has prevented Australia providing its citizens' basic needs, the federal assistant minister for charities, competition, treasury and now productivity says. Take, for example, Dr Leigh's home town of Canberra. Faced with insufficient housing supply and rising unaffordability, the ACT government introduced a new planning system in 2023, intended to improve flexibility and clarity. But greater flexibility meant greater complexity, more documentation requirements and slower approval timelines. Building consents more than halved. Whereas, in the mid 1960s, when the national capital was being developed at "breath-taking" speed, 2400 new homes were being built on average each year. In 2024, only 2180 new dwellings were greenlit in the ACT. The go-slow in approvals pathways is not confined to housing, with clean energy projects suffering from delay and deferral and stifling administration in the university sector holding back great Australian minds from realising world-changing research. Slow, fragmented, and over-engineered systems are making it harder to get approval for the things Australia needs. "And the consequences are visible everywhere - from rising rents and overcrowding, to the growing number of people priced out of the communities they grew up in," Dr Leigh will tell the Chifley Research Centre in Melbourne on Tuesday. His speech, influenced by the work of US journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, calls for Australia to adopt an "abundance agenda": for a progressive supply-side push to fix falling productivity and meet the nation's needs. "The abundance agenda isn't about building without limits. It's about removing the limits that no longer serve us," he says. "Ambition without capability leads to frustration. Vision without delivery erodes trust. If we want the next decade to be one of shared prosperity and real progress, we have to be able to build." The solution is not just to slash red tape and remove systems that are designed to keep risk in check. Public institutions too often lack the capability to evaluate risks, make bold decisions, and stick to timelines. Upskilling them is essential. "One reason for over-regulation is fear - of failure, of blame, of reputational damage," Dr Leigh says. "The result is systems that push decisions upward, delay risk, and rely on external consultants to validate internal judgment. "Reversing this trend won't happen overnight. But it starts with institutions that are trusted to act - not just to review, approve and regulate, but to enable."
AU Financial Review
4 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Labor minister says ‘thickets of regulation' need to be slashed
The Labor minister tasked with fixing Australian living standards is calling for a major rethink of bureaucratic process, saying thickets of regulation and cultures of risk aversion are holding the country back. Assistant Minister for Productivity Andrew Leigh adds governments too often reward processes over outcomes and critical areas of the economy need to be streamlined, outlining five main recommendations such as holding decision-makers who cause delays to account.
The Age
4 days ago
- Business
- The Age
‘Too hard to build': Albanese government slams local councils over housing shortfall
The Albanese government has taken aim at local councils and top-heavy universities as being responsible for the nation's housing crisis and a drain on Australians' stagnating standard of living respectively, even as Labor struggles to meet its home-building targets. In one of his first speeches since being appointed assistant minister for productivity, Andrew Leigh will argue on Tuesday that a 'thicket of regulation' is holding back housing, infrastructure and research. Leigh's speech at the Chifley Research Centre in Melbourne comes just weeks after the government's own independent housing sector adviser, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, warned that the Labor government's National Housing Accord was set to fall 262,000 short of its 1.2 million target for new homes by the end of the decade. Leigh will put the heat on local government, singling out North Sydney Council, which has been scrambling to repair its budget after the pricing regulator rejected a proposed 87 per cent rate rise, as a prime example of a slow-mover. 'After an applicant files an application for development approval, councils are supposed to do the initial checks and lodge it in their system within 14 days,' he will say. 'In the current financial year, just one in three development applications to North Sydney Council have been approved in that time. The average lag is 41 days.' North Sydney Council was contacted for comment. Leigh will note the council also has a low approval rate, approving just 44 new homes in the seven months to February this year, 'barely 6 per cent of its pro rata target of 787 homes under the National Housing Accord.' The accord has linked funding to a target – agreed to by federal, state and local governments as well as institutional investors and the construction sector – of building 1 million well-located homes over five years from mid-2024. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, following Labor's thumping election victory, marked a turning point in the government's priorities, telling the ABC's Insiders program in May that Labor's 'first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity. The second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation.'
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Too hard to build': Albanese government slams local councils over housing shortfall
The Albanese government has taken aim at local councils and top-heavy universities as being responsible for the nation's housing crisis and a drain on Australians' stagnating standard of living respectively, even as Labor struggles to meet its home-building targets. In one of his first speeches since being appointed assistant minister for productivity, Andrew Leigh will argue on Tuesday that a 'thicket of regulation' is holding back housing, infrastructure and research. Leigh's speech at the Chifley Research Centre in Melbourne comes just weeks after the government's own independent housing sector adviser, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, warned that the Labor government's National Housing Accord was set to fall 262,000 short of its 1.2 million target for new homes by the end of the decade. Leigh will put the heat on local government, singling out North Sydney Council, which has been scrambling to repair its budget after the pricing regulator rejected a proposed 87 per cent rate rise, as a prime example of a slow-mover. 'After an applicant files an application for development approval, councils are supposed to do the initial checks and lodge it in their system within 14 days,' he will say. 'In the current financial year, just one in three development applications to North Sydney Council have been approved in that time. The average lag is 41 days.' North Sydney Council was contacted for comment. Leigh will note the council also has a low approval rate, approving just 44 new homes in the seven months to February this year, 'barely 6 per cent of its pro rata target of 787 homes under the National Housing Accord.' The accord has linked funding to a target – agreed to by federal, state and local governments as well as institutional investors and the construction sector – of building 1 million well-located homes over five years from mid-2024. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, following Labor's thumping election victory, marked a turning point in the government's priorities, telling the ABC's Insiders program in May that Labor's 'first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity. The second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation.'
