Six reform plans are now public. They contain dated commitments, named legislation and a dollar figure against each reform.
Western Australia became the seventh jurisdiction to sign a reform plan under National Competition Policy last week, with the Commonwealth putting $29.8 million behind zoning consolidation, centralised approvals near train stations and greater use of modern construction methods.
Announcements like that one are easy to skim past. What is less well known is that the agreements underneath them are public documents, and they are considerably more specific than the announcements built on top of them.
Six jurisdictions have signed reform plans that are now published in full on the Federal Financial Relations website. Each sets out dated commitments, names the legislation that will change, and attaches a dollar figure to every individual reform. Read side by side, they show something no single announcement does. The states are not moving at the same speed, and some have not committed to planning reform at all.
What the money is actually for
The National Competition Policy schedule to the Federation Funding Agreement was signed by all Australian treasurers on 29 November 2024 and runs to 31 December 2034. The Commonwealth contribution is $900 million. It is commonly referred to as the National Productivity Fund.
That money is not a general grant. It is divided across reform areas, and every jurisdiction has a maximum allocation against each one. Payment follows delivery rather than preceding it, and the National Competition Council provides independent advice to the Commonwealth Treasurer on whether a jurisdiction has actually delivered before any money moves.
Two of the reform areas bear directly on construction.
The first is described in the agreement as liberalising and standardising commercial zoning rules and reviewing planning requirements so they do not distort competition. The national pool is $240 million.
The second is lowering barriers to modern methods of construction. The national pool is $120 million. This is the same $120 million that has appeared in federal budget material for modular and prefabricated housing, now broken down jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
Together, $360 million of the $900 million is attached to planning and construction reform. That is 40 per cent of the fund.
| Jurisdiction | Commercial planning and zoning ($m) | Modern methods of construction ($m) | Total NCP allocation ($m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 73.00 | 36.50 | 265.49 |
| Victoria | 59.97 | 29.99 | 219.19 |
| Queensland | 47.92 | 23.96 | 176.45 |
| Western Australia | 25.44 | 12.72 | 96.82 |
| South Australia | 16.15 | 8.07 | 63.03 |
| Tasmania | 5.84 | 2.92 | 26.34 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 5.84 | 2.92 | 26.34 |
| Northern Territory | 5.84 | 2.92 | 26.34 |
| Total | 240.00 | 120.00 | 900.00 |
Maximum funding allocations under the National Competition Policy Federation Funding Agreement schedule, signed December 2025. Figures are maximums available on delivery, not amounts committed or paid.
The commercial framing matters
The planning and zoning stream is explicitly about commercial land use. The guidelines that govern it, approved by the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury on 27 February 2025, set out four projects: limiting anti-competitive objections to development, removing anti-competitive considerations from planning and rezoning decisions, increasing the number of purposes for which land can be used, and streamlining the criteria and processes for development assessment and rezoning.
The stated objective is business entry and competition, not housing supply. Announcements built on this funding often lead with housing, which is worth holding in mind when reading them.
It is also separate from the residential planning reform each state is running on its own account, such as Western Australia’s overhaul of its Residential Design Codes. The two are not the same programme and should not be read as one.
That said, several of the reforms will affect residential work regardless of the framing, because the assessment pathways, appeal rights and electronic lodgement systems being changed are shared across development types. In at least one case the commitment is explicitly for all development types.
New South Wales has committed the most
The New South Wales plan, published in June 2026, claims $67.525 million of a possible $73 million for planning and zoning, plus $5 million for competition principles work. It is the largest single commitment in the country.
The measure with the widest reach is a bill to expand the code assessed pathway. New South Wales intends to lift the proportion of applications assessed through a Complying Development Certificate from 45 per cent to 75 per cent, across all development types. The bill carries a delivery date of 30 June 2027.
The same plan commits to:
- Allowing minor variations from complying standards to be approved through the Complying Development Certificate process rather than triggering a full development application, with council discretion limited to the portion that exceeds the standard
- Legislating prescribed timeframes for assessing those minor variations, with the variation deemed approved if the timeframe is not met
- A new targeted assessment development pathway for applications where strategic matters have already been settled upfront, removing the requirement for some technical reports on low risk proposals
- Making employment zones open zones, so uses beyond the nominated list can be considered with consent rather than prohibited outright
- Updating industrial land use definitions in the Standard Instrument Local Environmental Plans by 31 December 2026, and retail definitions by 31 December 2028
The Development Coordination Authority, which centralises agency concurrence and referral requirements and resolves conflicting agency advice, is recorded in the plan as completed on 20 November 2025.
New South Wales intends to lift the proportion of applications assessed through a Complying Development Certificate from 45 per cent to 75 per cent, across all development types.
South Australia has the most detailed timetable
South Australia signed in December 2025 for $13.384 million of a possible $16.15 million.
Much of its case rests on work already done. The Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 came into full operation on 19 March 2021, replacing all 72 local council development plans with a single statewide Planning and Design Code.
The forward commitments carry firm dates:
- Statewide Engineering Design Standards by 31 December 2026, creating a low risk classification for compliant applications, alongside regulation changes removing the need for council consent to the vesting of land where a land division complies with those standards
- A new zone for master planned mixed use communities by 31 December 2026
- Automation of Deemed-to-Satisfy approvals by 31 December 2027, removing the step where a person confirms acceptance
- Extension of the streamlined Code Amendment process to commercial rezonings by 31 December 2027
- Land Use Classes established in the Code by 31 March 2028, so a change of use within a class will no longer require a development application
The plan puts numbers on the current position. Seventy two per cent of development applications in commercial or industrial zones go through a performance assessment process taking between 20 and 70 business days. In its present form, the streamlined Code Amendment process cuts a ministerial initiation decision from a typical three to six months down to 15 business days.
Queensland has signed for the principles and deferred the rest
Queensland’s plan was signed by the state Treasurer on 6 June 2026. It claims $5 million, all of it for implementing the national competition principles.
On planning and zoning, and on modern methods of construction, every delivery date in the Queensland plan reads “to be confirmed”. The plan states that Queensland is not seeking a determination of the maximum funding allocation for those performance requirements at this stage.
The reason given is sequencing. Queensland is working through a Productivity Commission inquiry into the productivity of the building and construction sector, whose final report went to government on 24 October 2025, and is developing 13 new regional plans alongside infrastructure plans. The document commits to further consideration during 2026 and an updated reform plan by 30 June 2027.
Queensland’s maximum allocation across the two construction reform areas is $71.88 million. None of it is currently claimed.
The smaller jurisdictions
Tasmania signed for $6.022 million, made up of $5 million for competition principles and $1.022 million for modern construction methods. Its planning and zoning work remains at review stage, with potential amendments to the Tasmanian Planning Scheme still to be identified.
The Australian Capital Territory signed for $5.292 million, again mostly principles work, with $292,000 attached to two modern construction outputs expected around 2028 to 2029.
The Northern Territory signed for $1.168 million against a single reform: removing standing for third parties to initiate merits review under industry development and environment legislation, delivered on 8 April 2025.
Western Australia is the newest, and Victoria is absent
Western Australia’s $29.8 million was announced on 23 August 2026. Its maximum across the two construction reform areas is $38.16 million.
The reforms named in the announcement are the consolidation of more than 800 land use terms and 269 zones across the Perth metropolitan and Peel regions, centralised development approvals with the Western Australian Planning Commission for higher density residential and mixed use development within 800 metres of train stations starting with ten metropolitan precincts, a fast track decision making pathway for renewable energy and strategic industrial projects together with an Office of the Coordinator General, a digital portal for subdivision lodgement expected to save up to four weeks, and support for greater use of modern construction methods.
Western Australia’s signed reform plan had not been published on the Federal Financial Relations website as at 25 August 2026. Until it is, the milestone dates and the split of the $29.8 million between individual reforms cannot be verified at primary source.
Victoria is the one jurisdiction with no reform plan published on that page. It signed the multilateral schedule and has published its competition principles implementation timetable, but no jurisdiction-specific reform plan appears alongside those of the other six. Victoria’s maximum allocation is $219.19 million, the second largest in the country.
The prefab money is back-loaded
The $120 million modern construction pool is weighted toward the hardest part of the job, and the weightings are set out in the agreement.
Adopting a nationally consistent definition of prefabricated and modular construction is worth 10 per cent. Removing legislative barriers to accepting manufacturers’ certificates under the national voluntary manufacturer certification scheme is worth 25 per cent. Reviewing planning systems for regulatory neutrality between off site and on site construction is worth 5 per cent, and reviewing house and building consumer protections another 5 per cent.
The remaining 55 per cent sits behind two milestones: actually amending planning systems to achieve regulatory neutrality, worth 35 per cent, and actually amending house and building consumer protections, worth 20 per cent.
The structure is deliberate. Reviews are inexpensive. Legislative change is not.
The Commonwealth has committed $4.7 million to the Australian Building Codes Board to develop the definition of prefabricated and modular building work and the voluntary manufacturer scheme, with the national definition due through the National Construction Code by 31 May 2028. Some states are running ahead of that timetable. New South Wales has already written prefabricated buildings into its planning legislation.
The gap between announcement and delivery is now measurable
The value of these documents is that they convert political language into dates.
An announcement about cutting red tape is difficult to hold anyone to. A commitment to lift complying development from 45 to 75 per cent of applications, through a bill due on 30 June 2027, is not. Nor is a commitment to automate Deemed-to-Satisfy approvals by 31 December 2027, or to publish statewide Engineering Design Standards by the end of 2026.
Those dates fall inside the working life of projects being priced now. Approval pathways, appeal exposure and assessment timeframes are the regulatory settings that sit underneath programme risk and holding costs, and in two states several of them are scheduled to change within eighteen months.
The agreements also make the money conditional in a way that recent housing programmes have not been. Payment follows delivery, and an independent body assesses whether delivery occurred. Whether that changes the pace is the open question. The original 1995 competition payments ran on the same logic, with mixed results across jurisdictions.
Seven jurisdictions have now put their names to something specific. Two have committed to substantial change in how development is assessed. One of the largest has deferred the question for another year. One has not published a plan at all.
That is a more useful picture of Australian planning reform than any single announcement provides.
Frequently asked questions
It is the $900 million the Commonwealth has committed to states and territories under the revitalised National Competition Policy, through a Federation Funding Agreement schedule signed by all treasurers on 29 November 2024. It runs to 31 December 2034. Money is paid to a jurisdiction only after it delivers the reforms set out in its own plan.
$360 million, or 40 per cent. That is made up of a $240 million pool for commercial planning and zoning reform and a $120 million pool for lowering barriers to modern methods of construction.
New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory have plans published on the Federal Financial Relations website. Western Australia’s agreement was announced on 23 August 2026 but its plan had not been published as at 25 August 2026. Victoria has no published plan.
It varies by jurisdiction and by reform. The earliest dated commitments fall in late 2026, including South Australia’s statewide Engineering Design Standards and new master planned mixed use zone, and New South Wales updating industrial land use definitions. The New South Wales bill expanding complying development is due by 30 June 2027. Some commitments run to 2028.
No. The agreement pays on delivery. A jurisdiction must first meet the reporting requirements of the schedule, and the National Competition Council then provides independent advice to the Commonwealth Treasurer on whether the commitments in that jurisdiction’s plan have been delivered.
GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY
This article is general information for the Australian construction industry and does not constitute legal, financial or business guidance. Figures and reform commitments are drawn from the National Competition Policy Federation Funding Agreement schedule and the published jurisdiction-specific reform plans, accessed 25 August 2026. Reform plans are periodically updated by the jurisdictions that lodge them.
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