It was meant to be a basic step forward. It was intended to bring homes into the 21st century. Instead, the Queensland Government is backing away from its promise to require new housing to meet minimum accessibility standards.

And the white-shoe brigade is winning. The danger is that if - or when - Queensland dispenses with accessible design as part of the rush to build houses, other states may follow.

If the government caves into industry lobbying, the cost will be carried not by developers, but by hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders who need homes they can actually live in.

The decision to delay implementation of the national minimum accessibility standard, originally set to commence from 1 October 2023, places Queensland on a path to betrayal.

After years of slow consultation the state finally signed up to the 2022 National Construction Code (NCC) update. This included silver-level Livable Housing Design Standard, which includes basic features like step-free entry, accessible showers, and wider doorways. But facing pressure from the powerful development lobby that wants to do things any way it likes, the government is now backpedalling.

“This is a betrayal of people with disability, older people, and families with young children,” says the Queensland Disability Network’s CEO Michelle Moss. “It is being driven by powerful vested interests who are trying to turn a quick buck. Our rights are being traded away.”

Critically, it’s not just advocacy groups warning of disaster. A joint statement from a coalition including the Australian Institute of Architects, the Building Designers Association, and Physical Disability Australia makes clear the stakes: without regulation, the housing crisis for people with disability will deepen, locking them out of the market for decades.

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The Queensland Government’s reversal threatens to entrench a legacy of inaccessible homes, undermining both human rights and economic logic.

A 2021 cost-benefit analysis by the Australian Building Codes Board showed that incorporating accessibility features at the design and construction stage adds only a small cost. This often amounts to less than one percent of the final cost, but results in significant lifetime savings and increased independence for residents.

Retrofitting later can cost up to ten times more than incorporating the standards at the beginning. It adds enormous time and construction costs to the build. Worse, it means people with disability are often forced into aged care or unsafe housing simply because no alternatives exist.

“The building industry’s push to stall or reverse this reform shows a contemptuous disregard for the needs of people with disability,” says PDA President Andrew Fairbairn. “They’re willing to design out a whole section of our population to protect their margins.”

It’s not too late for the government to honour its commitments.

The Queensland Disability Network and more than 100 allied organisations and experts have signed a joint statement calling on the Premier and Housing Minister to immediately reinstate the October start date and lock in silver standard requirements for all future residential builds.

If Queensland proceeds to water down or remove the accessibility standards, it will break faith not just with the disability community, but with the intergovernmental agreement signed in good faith in 2022.

It’s a decision that can and must be reversed—before thousands of homes are built that lock people out.