Overview
The upcoming federal budget has many waiting with bated breath, especially those hoping for urgent action to tackle Australia's severe housing crisis. But ahead of the wider announcements on Tuesday, the ABC has reported that this year's federal budget will include funding for an AI tool that can approve housing developments.
The housing crisis is a major part of affordability concerns that are driving voting decisions nationwide, and the federal government seems to want to address the problem rapidly. But not immediately. The AI program, which will reportedly take four years to develop, comes with $105.9 million in funds and is intended to speed up project approvals and tackle the supply problems in the housing market by sharing environmental data.
In a statement celebrating the news, Home Industry Association Managing Director Jocelyn Martin said, "Australia's environmental approvals system has not kept pace with the scale or urgency of our housing challenge. This Budget begins the shift toward a modern system that uses better data, digital tools and AI to deliver faster, clearer and more consistent decisions."
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The news of this technology push comes off the back of the government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation strike team, which was deployed in August of 2025 to address a backlog of project approvals, and is reportedly on track to achieve a target of 26,000 approvals by July of this year.
Other changes to come on Tuesday include $2 billion to support infrastructure for new housing lots, changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing, as well as $250 million in funding to establish Australia's first National Environmental Protection Agency, which, among other things, will cut back on delays from environmental approvals, presumably with some assistance from the aforementioned AI tool, should it be finalised.
The pressure is on for major parties to tackle the housing crisis, as frustrations from a lack of any concrete measures from Labor and Liberal has seen a notable uptick in popularity for independent candidates, Greens and even One Nation, which won its first lower house election in 30 years at the Farrel by-election on Saturday.
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After that result, Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg said of the major parties, "We are where we deserve to be, over the last 10 years we haven't done enough policy work, and I think the generation of millennials, my generation, are pretty dirty on the major parties and with good reason.… it's been about a decade since we've had a decent policy."
The 2026 federal budget will be delivered in full by Treasurer Jim Chalmers at 7.30pm AEST on Tuesday, May 12.
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