The Illawarra alone needs $1.6b to unlock housing. The nation gets $2b
Budget reaction, Kiama council, city centre plans and more
The land is zoned. Business is willing to invest. About 25,000 homes are waiting to be built across growth corridors from Appin to Nowra. What’s missing, critics argue - and what this week’s federal budget has again failed to deliver at the scale required - is the infrastructure to get them out of the ground.
That is the central frustration behind the Illawarra’s response to Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ fifth budget, which committed $2 billion nationally to fund the roads, water, power and sewage connections needed to unlock new housing supply. The government projects the fund will support 65,000 homes across the country over the next decade. Business Illawarra estimates its region alone needs more than $1.6 billion to unlock its pipeline.
“A $2 billion national fund to support 65,000 homes does not even touch the edges of the problem,” Business Illawarra Director Coralie McCarthy said.
“Our region can deliver more than 50,000 homes on land already zoned — but falls short because enabling infrastructure is not funded. We know more than $1.6 billion is required in our region to make that happen.”
Those homes span priority growth areas including Appin, West Dapto, Shellharbour, Nowra Bomaderry, Calderwood, Kiama and Mittagong. The bottleneck is not planning, not appetite, not ambition — it is unfunded pipes and roads. “This region is not short of opportunity,” Ms McCarthy said. “It is short of coordinated, long-term investment.”
Qualified support
Chalmers framed the budget as a reckoning with a housing market he called broken, promising to address affordability “from every responsible angle.” Alongside the infrastructure fund, the government wound back negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions for property investors — a contested move expected to help around 75,000 Australians into home ownership over a decade, and one the Treasurer defended as a necessary correction to entrenched intergenerational inequity.
The tax changes drew qualified support from Community Industry Group, which has long advocated for exactly this kind of reform. CEO Nicky Sloan welcomed the measures but argued they didn’t go far enough: “We hope they will also incentivise build-to-rent properties, but we would have liked to see these measures extended to only apply to affordable rental properties.”
Where CI Group was unambiguously positive was on the budget’s $60 million national youth housing supplement. Ms Sloan described it as fixing a structural flaw - what the sector calls the “youth housing penalty” - that has long discouraged providers from offering tenancies to young people and disadvantaged youth-focused bids in competitive funding rounds. “This will help to house 4,000 young people who may otherwise become homeless,” she said. A genuine win, even if it sits within a budget that CI Group noted contains little to directly grow social housing supply.
Scale is not addressed
Housing Trust CEO Amanda Winks made the same point in different terms. With around 4000 people on the social housing waitlist across the Illawarra and Shoalhaven - and thousands more in private rental stress - she said the scale of need demanded more than welcome gestures. Her ask was structural: a permanent Commonwealth investment model, not rolling funding rounds, treating social and affordable housing as essential infrastructure rather than a discretionary spend. And a clear condition on the tax changes: “A meaningful share of any additional housing tax revenue should be reinvested into social and affordable housing. Without reinvestment, the people who need it most risk missing out.”
The confidence backdrop makes all of this harder. Business Illawarra’s conditions survey, currently open, is tracking toward the lowest confidence readings in years, with fuel, energy and insurance costs compressing margins and a regional workforce increasingly unable to afford to live where it works. “Housing is one of our most pressing workforce issues,” Ms McCarthy said. “If people cannot live near where they work, we cannot sustain economic growth or support our communities.”
Chalmers said the government’s 1.2 million home target remained achievable “if everyone does their bit.” The Illawarra’s case is that it has done its bit: zoned the land, identified the corridors, built the business case. What it needs from Canberra is not another national fund spread thin across the country. It needs a multi-year, cross-government infrastructure commitment tied to where the homes can actually be built.
Until then, the gap between the budget’s ambition and the region’s reality will likely be measured in waiting lists, workforce shortfalls, and the slow exodus of key workers who can no longer afford to stay.
This article draws on statements from Housing Trust, Community Industry Group, Business Illawarra, and the Treasurer’s budget speech and press conference transcripts.
ICAC reportedly investigates UOW
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating alleged governance improprieties at the University of Wollongong, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. ICAC has spent months probing claims tied to governance, consultant influence and weakened accountability structures, and recently secured a NSW Supreme Court summons for former interim vice-chancellor John Dewar to appear as a witness. The article stresses Dewar is not accused of wrongdoing.
The investigation follows a parliamentary inquiry that blasted NSW universities as “not fit for purpose”, criticising opaque commercial dealings and heavy consultant involvement. UoW was singled out over a 2025 restructure linked to heavier workloads and reduced job security. Whistleblower allegations included conflicts of interest, silencing of internal criticism and “creative accounting” used to justify cuts to jobs and courses.
When asked to comment a UOW spokesperson said: “Any enquiries about the existence or status of investigations by integrity agencies should be directed to the relevant agency.”
Kiama council granted 12-month financial lifeline
The NSW Government has proposed a 12-month extension to Kiama Municipal Council’s Performance Improvement Order, pushing the deadline to achieve a balanced budget to the 2027–28 financial year. Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig issued the notice to give the council more time to implement staged savings and identify sustainable revenue, reducing immediate pressure for deep cuts to local services and jobs.
While the council has improved its financial management, it still faces a structural deficit and major maintenance costs at Blue Haven Terralong. Under the varied order, the council must prepare an independent business case for Blue Haven, investigate long-term management for its tourist parks, and keep domestic waste services in-house.
Serious challenges
Minister Hoenig emphasised that while progress has been made, “the job is not finished.” He noted that the extension provides a “more measured path to financial sustainability,” but warned the council “still faces serious financial sustainability challenges.” The council has 14 days to respond to the proposed variation.
Kiama Mayor Cameron McDonald thanked Minister Hoenig for allowing Council extra time to balance its budget: “I’d like to acknowledge Minister Hoenig for taking time last week to meet with Jane and I directly while we were at Parliament House for the LG8 meeting [on May 7],” he said.
“It was heartening to chat first-hand and listen to his in-depth knowledge of our local government’s unique situation and considered views of our circumstances.
“Now that we have until 30 June 2028 as the deadline, it means Council will not have to make changes to our community and youth services, our libraries, Kiama Leisure Centre, the Visitor Information Centre and the Pilot’s Cottage Museum,” he said.
Kudos to Robofit
As startup founders know: it’s hard out there. So major congrats to the Wollongong-based Robofit on its fifth anniversary.
Founders Maryanne Harris and her partner Daniel Hillyer began with one clinic in North Wollongong. Now that network includes Mascot and Parramatta in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Robot is all about combining exercise physiology and physiotherapy with Australia's first neuro-controlled exoskeletons. It is “built on belief and is growing with purpose and celebrates every 1% win”.
Wollongong CBD is serious about growth
Planning changes now on exhibition would protect employment floorspace, slash developer contributions for commercial uses, and let major office projects defer payments until occupation — removing real barriers to investment.
The City Centre Planning Review backs Wollongong’s role as a regional capital, driving more commercial and tourism development where it matters most. Have your say here.
The big ticket
it’s been a big week for everyone at HARS, with John Travolta’s much-loved Boeing 707 finally returning to it final resting place at Albion Park.
If that wasn’t enough excitement there’s always the massive Wings Over Shellharbour 2026 this weekend. It begins with a careers expo today from 9am-2pm, before all the action from 9am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Learn more here