The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) notes today’s announcement of a Productivity Commission inquiry into the rules and regulations affecting housing supply.
Australia faces significant and urgent housing challenges, and there is a clear need to improve the efficiency, coordination and effectiveness of systems that support housing delivery. Importantly, the Terms of Reference recognise that regulation serves an important purpose and that reform must consider both the objectives and benefits of regulatory systems, alongside opportunities to improve housing supply and productivity outcomes.
In responding to the announcement today, PIA CEO Matt Collins said, “PIA urges the Productivity Commission to engage closely with the planning profession throughout the inquiry. Planners work within these systems every day and bring practical expertise on how approval pathways, infrastructure coordination, land use planning and growth management operate in practice across all jurisdictions.”
“The inquiry’s focus on infrastructure sequencing, land availability, approvals systems and post-approval barriers reflects the reality that housing supply outcomes depend on more than simply rezoning land or removing regulation. Delivering more homes requires coordinated systems, enabling infrastructure, investment certainty and effective long-term planning frameworks,” Mr Collins said.
PIA has continued to advocate clear asks of governments on opportunities to improve planning systems and housing delivery through major policy reports including Planning for Productivity, Planning for the Housing We Need and Growing Well.
PIA also urges governments to strengthen the national evidence base underpinning housing and planning reform. PIA has previously called for improved national data and transparency around planning system performance, housing supply and infrastructure delivery. In particular, Treasurers previously agreed to develop national data dashboards on planning, land use and housing supply, however there has been no public update on progress.
Similarly, National Cabinet agreed that Planning Ministers would report twice yearly on progress implementing the National Planning Reform Blueprint measures, yet no updated reporting has been released since March 2025.
If Australia is serious about evidence-based reform, improved public reporting, better national data and transparent measurement of reform outcomes must form part of the solution, and we urge Treasury to publicly release the overdue National Planning Reform Blueprint reports to help inform the Productivity Commission's work.
PIA also encourages the inquiry to examine the range of post-approval barriers affecting housing delivery and project feasibility. While planning approvals are important, hundreds of thousands of approved homes are not being delivered due to broader system constraints including infrastructure delivery, financing conditions, macroeconomic settings, construction productivity decline and market feasibility pressures.
PIA intends to make a detailed submission to the inquiry.
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Media contact: Nicole Bennetts, [email protected], 0420 241 163