While attention understandably focused on Governor Glenn Stevens' nods and winks about interest rates yesterday, two other important Reserve Bank messages skated by without headlines.

The first is that the RBA, flushed with the success of being the decade's best-performed central bank, is looking to lead the way in taking on asset bubbles as well as common-or-garden variety inflation.

The second was a sly shot at the gross incompetence of various Australian governments over housing. The RBA boss didn't single out any particular government, but if you guessed the buffoons disguised as the NSW administration were at the front of the queue, you wouldn't be wrong.

(And just while I'm on about sly messages, it's possible the markets have read too much into Stevens' declaration of independence from the unemployment rate. The RBA saying it doesn't have to wait for unemployment to peak before raising rates doesn't mean it won't wait.)

The RBA has been building up a considerable body of work on housing, the price thereof and how it performs through the cycle. Some of that has been driven by its now unofficial prudential role - keeping an eye of the health of the financial system - as well as interest in an important part of our economy, especially in recovery mode.

'Leaning against the wind'

But there were hints yesterday of the RBA taking another step along the central bank evolutionary path of at least "leaning against the wind" on asset bubbles - a further repudiation of the Greenspan doctrine of "let her rip".

And judging by the next two paragraphs, the RBA is making an interesting move into housing affordability and supply policy. Said Stevens:

 ''This ought to be the time when we can add to the dwelling stock without a major run-up in prices. If we fail to do that - if all we end up with is higher prices and not many more dwellings - then it will be very disappointing, indeed quite disturbing.
''Not only would it confirm that there are serious impediments to producing one of the things that previous generations of Australians have taken for granted, namely affordable shelter, it would also pose elevated risks of problems of over-leverage and asset price deflation.''

There are considered comments and should be noted by anyone in danger of being suckered by the latest crop of residential real estate spruikers.

Here's the RBA saying it's sick of our housing boom-and-bust cycle and wants to see more housing built and the price of existing housing not rise much. And the Governor is prepared to use his big interest rate stick to clobber those who disagree with him.

Of course, the blunt monetary instrument isn't good much at deciding how people spend money - on turning bush into housing or just speculating on the existing stock rising in price. That's where the shot at governments, especially the more inept state governments, came in.

NSW on the nose

When Stevens talks of "confirming" there are serious impediments to affordable shelter, he means there are serious impediments, most of which come down to bad state and local government policies.

When demographer Bernard Salt talks about affordable housing in a city, he cites Melbourne as having small, free-standing homes within a commutable distance of the CBD for around $250,000 while the same thing in Sydney costs about double. Ergo, Salt says, it's no surprise that for the first time in our history, Melbourne's population has been growing faster than Sydney's.

How bad is NSW policy? An example: on top of the already well-documented fees, charges, levies, taxes and straight bureaucracy that inflate greenfield housing costs around Sydney, the Macquarie Street Collective is imposing local "job targets" on local governments, which in turn pass on the cost of "creating jobs" to developers.

You want to develop housing in, say, Penrith? You'll also have to provide jobs within Penrith for Penrith residents - just one more cost and ridiculous hassle that mitigates against doing business in NSW.

The Sussex Street Gang must feel nostalgia for the good old days in Russia - or perhaps their personal level of lunacy just likes pushing protectionism down to even the local council level: suburb against suburb, mate against mate - sounds like a caucus meeting.

That's just one example of the "impediments" Stevens hints at. One can speculate that the Home Vendors' Grant, sometimes ironically called the first-home buyers' grant, would be another such impediment, but there are plenty.

The problem for the rest of us is that there's nothing the RBA can do to realise the vision splendid of affordable housing other than to smash us all with higher rates if house prices start to take off again. You've been warned.

Michael Pascoe is a BusinessDay contributing editor.