“The house won’t be gold-plated but it won’t fall down.” Housing Minister Clare O’Neil last year paused changes to the National Construction Code until 2029, hoping this would help with Labor’s plan to build 1.2 million homes over five years. Home completions have been falling since stricter National Construction Code rules, to incorporate energy efficiency, were introduced in 2018. The National Construction Code is more than eight times the size it was when it debuted in 1988 at 200 pages. Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted that Senator Bragg was opposed to the Federal Government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build more public housing.