iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

It’s great to see the PIA moving in a positive direction, but the historic revisionism is frustrating to see. The good news is that upzoning ~75% of land doesn’t count as broad-based. So that gives us a good steer for future reform! x.com/db_econ/stat...

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Look at the charts below. There is more low-density zoning within 5km of Auckland’s CBD—and within wealthy suburbs—than anywhere else in the city. Does this really pass the “Good Strategic Planning” sniff test?

The Fifth Estate headline is right: Auckland “isn’t a simple story of blanket upzoning”. But that’s only because the council planning process systematically worked to avoid upzoning Auckland’s wealthy middle-suburbs.

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Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 19/05/2026

Fantastic news that the Planning Institute of Australia has finally accepted the evidence on Auckland. Broad upzoning works, and it’s great to see PIA get instep with the evidence. But the strategic planning process made Auckland’s reforms worse: the process locked up wealthy inner-city areas.

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wake up babe new brattan report just dropped

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Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 18/05/2026

Would love to chat about this! Can connect you with Dom Behrens, the author, also.

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Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 12/05/2026

If you want to know what the Local Infrastructure Fund is, and why it matters, you can read the full post here: mail.jonobri.com/p/budget-2026

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Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 12/05/2026

That carrot has been dangled in front of states and councils, available only on the condition that they reform their byzantine planning systems—and get rid of the unjust and unjustifiable rules that make it illegal to build homes across our nation’s towns and cities alike.

Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 12/05/2026

The changes to CGT and Negative Gearing are good tax policy—but they’re not a meaningful housing policy. All available research tells us these policies explain less than 5% of house prices. But the new Local Infrastructure Fund is a juicy $2 billion carrot.

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The only way to affordable housing is for market prices to go down, and the only way for prices to go down is for housing to be abundant, rather than scarce. The Commonwealth recognises this, and this is small, positive step toward nation-wide abundance becoming reality.

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This would see the end of our nation’s most arbitrary and restrictive anti-housing policies, such as Victoria’s two-storey Neighbourhood Residential Zone, South Australia’s absurd one-storey overlays, and the many regional towns with minimum lot sizes in the 1000s of sqm.

The precise planning reform details are not yet available, but we know what we’d like to see most: a National Townhouse Code, setting a minimum density of three-storeys, Australia-wide. This would unlock new homes across inner-city and regional areas alike.

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Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 04/05/2026

By tying the new infrastructure fund to meaningful statewide planning and construction reform, the Feds are upping the stakes for states to do what’s right and make housing legal and easy to build where people want to live. This is the first real piece of Commonwealth housing leadership.

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Very excited to be hosting the Birthright film Premier and Q&A next Monday 11th at the brand new Brunswick Picture House. This is a brand new Australian film about struggling with the housing crisis. It’s dark, funny, and—most of all—it’s fun.

Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Reposted by Jonathan O'Brien

Planners only want one thing and it's disgusting.

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For more on why a National Settlement Strategy is at best a waste of time, and at worst a national disaster, you can read the @abundanthna submission to the Federal Productivity Inquiry: pbs.twimg.com/media/HCwZr4... abundanthousing.org.au/docs/2603-Pr...

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So what is the National Plan for Australia’s Growth? Well, as of this submission, I can tell you one thing: the PIA has shied away from calling it a National Settlement Strategy. Because it’s definitely not about telling people where they should live.

The only time where things get dicey is in reference to an “alignment of migration” with regional development policy. But since this document is not about telling people where they should live (remembering that migrants are people), we should not read into this.

There is a mention of how population growth in “constrained urban systems” places pressure on housing supply. The good news, as mentioned up top, is that the majority of these constraints are artificial! The PIA can work with local councils to remove these planning constraints.

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In one or two places the document expresses a subtle distaste for how settlement patterns “emerge” rather than occurring “by design”. But as they have reassured us over and over again, the National Settlement Strategy is not about designing settlement patterns. So no worries!

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In the meantime we have the PIA’s submission to the Productivity Inquiry, calling for a National Settlement Strategy. The submission is, of course, toothless. It mainly does what the PIA does best, which is call for the creation of even more documents.

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This would be a big change for the Planning Institute, who—as far as our research can dig—has never once condemned the restrictive and punitive planning actions of any local council. But it’s the change we’ll need to see if we want to start hitting these indicators!

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The PIA should show leadership by helping local councils to remove restrictions on housing in areas with job access—policies that currently impact their chosen indicators negatively. They could start with councils like Woollahra, Mosman, and Bayside. x.com/SydneyYIMBY/...

The Planning Institute’s call for a National Settlement Strategy is finally live. They provide four indicators of success. The good news for the PIA is that there is one clear way to improve all of these indicators: broad-based upzoning of all Australian inner-cities.

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You can read Ryan’s article, and the rest of Inflection Points Issue 04 here: inflectionpoints.work/articles/the...

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The problem, of course, is that our charitable giving laws have not kept up with our willingness to give—and are too tied up in the priorities of yesterday, rather than the challenges of today.

I’m very lucky to run publication that continues to go from the strength to strength, primarily on the back of the brilliant Australians who are willing to write for us. This is because Australians are generous—something Ryan has (generously) written about for us here.

Absolutely delighted to publish Ryan Ginard on Australia’s urgent need for charitable giving reform. Ryan’s article appears in the fourth edition of Inflection Points, alongside Allegra Spender, Tim Nelson and team, and Keith Wolahan.

Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 01/03/2026

Australia faces three major crises: housing, energy, and productivity. Boundless is a book about how we might confront these great problems of our time, and it’s coming out in 2027. Co-written with the excellent @howardfmaclean.bsky.social and published by also-excellent Pantera Press.

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We cannot wait to read your ideas!

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If you want to enter the Prize, but aren’t sure if your topic is a precise fit—great news, for a one-month window we will be accepting pitches:

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We founded Inflection Points to create a platform for long-form writing about Australia and the institutions that drive its success. We want to deepen engagement with our nation in its own right and to in turn build a national shorthand for the unique ways Australia functions.

There is much Australian writing about the problems we face as a nation. There is less about the potential—and historically successful—solutions. This Prize exists to help change that. You can learn more and enter the prize here: 🏆 inflectionpoints.work/prize

Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 02/02/2026

After more than a decade of entering writing prizes, I am absolutely honoured to find myself on the other side. Introducing the $5,000 Inflection Points Writing Prize—for the best new piece of writing about the problems Australia faces, and the solutions within our grasp.

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The conversations we all have will be crucial to the ongoing reforms in all three cities, and the mission to make our cities better for current and future residents. Get your tickets here: www.yimby.melbourne/tour

yimby.melbourne

Order Without Design Tour 2026

Join Alain Bertaud, former Principal Planner at the World Bank and author of Order without Design, for an evening exploring the intersection between policy and markets.

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Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 02/02/2026

I’m very excited to be announcing that Alain will be touring Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne in March of this year. We’ve lined up a wonderful set of guests including Lucy Turnbull, Howard Maclean, and Brendan Coates across our cities.

Jonathan O'Brien @jonobri.com · 02/02/2026

In September of last year, I was lucky enough to have dinner with Alain Bertaud—author of Order without Design, one of the best books ever written about cities—in a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. Now, he’s coming to Australia.