The Coalition is proposing to scrap energy efficiency rules and bring in more migrant builders and fewer baristas as part of its plan to solve Australia’s housing crisis.

Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg said building more basic homes would do more to solve the housing shortage and has proposed slashing the National Construction Code to just 80 pages down from 2000 pages now, with a basic Australian standard covering fire safety, structural integrity and health standards.

“It’s a house that won’t fall down, is secure, it won’t burn down but it doesn’t have anything else in it,” he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

“It’s a very simple house. It’s a basic amenity. You’ve got to have a window and a roof for example, it’s got to have that.

“Mandatory ramps, flattened shower flooring or reinforced walls would be optional extras.

“The house won’t be gold-plated but it won’t fall down.”

He also rejected a suggestion that homes built without energy efficiency standards would leave renters with higher power bills during a cold winter and a hot summer.

“Why do we have to make it compulsory for everyone? I just think it’s punitive for people on lower incomes,” Senator Bragg said.

“At the moment we don’t have enough houses — we just need to get more houses rather than get the best houses.”

Senator Bragg also argued cheaper solar panels meant those in a basic house in Sydney’s western suburbs, where it’s hotter in summer, would have access to affordable cooling options.

“With the reduction in the cost of solar panels and also batteries, if you’re worried about the roof issue, then that can be resolved in that way,” he said.

He also called for Australia’s skilled migration program to favour builders over pastry chefs and baristas.

“Whether they’re pastry chefs or baristas coming in at the moment, you could probably have fewer of those and I think we could probably have more chippies and more plumbers and more people who can help with building houses,” he said.

The Opposition frontbencher also vowed that a Coalition government would reverse Labor’s new ban on self-managed super funds borrowing to buy a residential investment property, that is coming into effect this month as part of a deal reached with the Greens to pass the May Budget tax changes.

“Today, I announce we will seek to amend Labor’s terrible SMSF ban to permit borrowing to invest in new housing,” he said.

“By law, the owners cannot live in these houses so all this ban is doing is stopping new houses — these communist-style taxes are crazy.”

Senator Bragg addressed the National Press Club a day after the Senate committee on productivity he led found onerous building regulations to make homes more energy efficient are worsening Australia’s housing shortage.

The report cited a Productivity Commission report from last year which found regulations at all levels of government were adding up to $320,000 to the cost of building a new house and up to $175,000 on building a new unit.

It also cited Housing Industry Association calculations showing changes to the National Construction Code in 2022 and 2025 had added $33,000 to the cost of building a new house.

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.

“First of all, I think the obvious point about Andrew Bragg is that he’s a housing spokesman for the Liberal Party whose policy is to cut funding for housing,” he told ABC Radio National on Wednesday.