Liberal Frontbencher Tells Poor Australians to Be Grateful for Whatever Box They Can Sleep In

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Liberal Frontbencher Tells Poor Australians to Be Grateful for Whatever Box They Can Sleep In

Let me tell you something. I have four kids. Four. I have spent a not-insignificant portion of my adult life making sure the roof over their heads does not leak, the walls keep the cold out, and the wiring does not catch fire when I plug in a toaster. I did not realize this made me a communist. But apparently, in the eyes of the Australian Liberal Party, wanting a house that meets basic human standards is some kind of radical left-wing position.

Senator Andrew Bragg, the man the Coalition put in charge of housing and homelessness policy, went on ABC Radio National this week and was asked a very simple question: does his plan to slash the national building code from 2,000 pages down to 80 mean low-income Australians should just accept living in substandard homes? His answer? “Yes, definitely.”

Not “that is a mischaracterization.” Not “let me explain the nuance.” “Yes, definitely.” Two words. On national radio. To a follow-up about whether poor people deserve walls that keep the weather out.

David Foote (AUSPIC) (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

His colleague, treasury spokesman Tim Wilson, backed him up by suggesting that in some cases Australians could simply put “a jumper on in winter rather than spending huge amounts of money” on improving housing quality. A jumper. Put a jumper on. This is the level of policy thinking coming from the party that wants to run the economy. My nine-year-old has more sophisticated ideas about winter, and he once tried to wear shorts in July because he said his legs do not get cold.

Here is what Bragg’s plan actually does. The national construction code sets minimum requirements for safety, health, accessibility, and sustainability in buildings. Bragg wants to gut it to 80 pages, modeled on New Zealand’s code, except New Zealand has separate compulsory documents covering durability and energy efficiency that Bragg conveniently does not mention. He strips the builder’s costs and shoves them onto the household. You get the cheap house. You get the higher power bills. You get the mould. You get the drafty walls. And if you complain, well, you should be grateful you have a house at all.

“It’s more important to have a house than to not have a house,” Bragg said. And look, on a purely theoretical level, sure. Shelter is better than no shelter. But this is not a binary choice in a developed nation. This is Australia. We are not choosing between a tent and a mansion. We are choosing whether the government should protect people from being shoved into poorly built boxes so developers can squeeze out a few extra dollars per unit.

Australian Human Rights Commission from Sydney, Australia (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Because that is what this is about. The Housing Industry Association welcomed the announcement. Of course they did. The builders love it. The developers love it. The people who will actually live in these homes? Not consulted.

Maiy Azize from Everybody’s Home put it plainly: renters are already living in homes that are freezing in winter, stifling in summer, riddled with mould. Dr. Cassandra Goldie from ACOSS called Bragg’s comments shocking and said the changes would lock families into higher power bills for decades. These are not radicals. These are people who work with the families living in these homes every single day.

And Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said she talked to builders about cutting the code to 200 pages and “they laugh their heads off.” Even the builders think 80 pages is a joke.

Joolsmagools ®️ / Pexels

Bragg also used his National Press Club speech to call superannuation “one of the biggest public policy failures since federation” and reportedly labeled housing standards, insulation requirements, and sewerage regulations as “communist.” Sewerage. The man thinks indoor plumbing is a Marxist plot.

I have questions for the manager. I have a lot of questions. But here is the biggest one: since when did the bar for public housing policy in this country become “well, at least it is four walls and a roof”? Since when did we accept that poor people do not get to be warm? Since when did a political party look at a housing crisis caused by investor tax breaks and developer greed and decide the solution is to build worse homes?

My group chat is on fire about this. Every mum I know is on fire about this. Because we are the ones who notice when the kids’ bedroom is cold. We are the ones who notice the mould creeping up the wall. We are the ones who notice when the power bill jumps because the house has no insulation. And we are the ones who are supposed to just put a jumper on and say thank you.

No. The answer is no.