Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Greg Jennett – ABC Afternoon Briefing

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP – SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH GREG JENNETT – ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING

Monday, 31 July 2023

TOPICS: Housing Australia Future Fund, Migration, JobSeeker

E&OE

Greg Jennett: Michael Sukkar welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. So, the Government’s made its intentions pretty clear around the Housing Australia Future Fund and the search for a double dissolution. This one from the Coalition’s point of view, why you are letting them dictate terms in this way. Why not go into the Senate and allow a vote to occur? Then you can try and vote this thing down as you want to.

Michael Sukkar: Well, there will be a vote. There’ll be a vote later in the year. And, you know, our view on this is very, very clear. We oppose it in principle. It will not make a difference for housing in this country. It won’t deliver, certainly won’t guarantee the delivery of even $1 into social and affordable housing. It’s a contrived program that’s been put together by the government to avoid it falling on the budget bottom line with no guarantees for money for social and affordable housing. So we oppose it in principle. We’ve made our opposition very clear. We voted against it in the House. As for the Greens and the Labor Party, we’ll allow them to negotiate in the Senate. But I must say the invective and unprofessional way in which the Government’s acted towards the Greens I think is highlighting perhaps that that could be a difficult negotiation.

Greg Jennett: Well, it could very well be, but your objection can’t be against the mechanism that are these sovereign investment funds. I mean, after all, it was the Coalition itself that invented the original Future Fund. So how do you sustain that criticism?

Michael Sukkar: For two reasons. Firstly, when we established the Future Fund, it was because we had surpluses to invest. Here, we’ve got a fund where the government will borrow $10 billion. It will pay around $400 million a year of interest and so that fund has to earn at least $400 million before there’s even $1 that could be available for social and affordable housing.

Greg Jennett: It could, though, couldn’t it?

Michael Sukkar: It may. And last year, for example, it would have gone backwards. So last year, had that money been invested with the Future Fund, not only would there not have been any money for social and affordable housing, the actual borrowing, which we would have been paying interest on, would have gone down in value. So it’s a very contrived money go round Ponzi scheme to really avoid it being on the budget bottom line, if you want to fund social and affordable housing, you’ve got to do what the former Coalition government did, is invest in it directly, make the projects happen, identify the projects and fund the projects.

Greg Jennett: Adequately, though? I mean, you look at the mismatch between demand and supply at present, is there not or can’t it be argued that there is a role for government to do more here?

Michael Sukkar: Well, there’s always, always more that you need to do, but what we’ve seen in the little over 12 months of this government is first home buyers down, housing approvals down, rents up on every single measure. They are performing markedly worse than the former government because when you’re in government, you have problems that you’re faced with and you’ve got to address them. We’re seeing no plan from the Labor Party on how to address the housing problems, other than, I must say, Greg, an extra 1.5 million migrants over five years with no plan of where to house those.

Greg Jennett: And I’m hearing that raised increasingly by members of the Coalition. To what end, though, is it your position that the brakes should be applied to migrant intake?

Michael Sukkar: Well, we’ll have more to say on that, but I think it’s very clear that the inference of what I’m saying is if you’re going to have a really large migration program, you’ve got to have a plan on where you house the people that you’re bringing in it.

Greg Jennett: What’s the context around the thinking? You’ve got a new policy, not you personally, but the Coalition has a new policy coming out on immigration.

Michael Sukkar: It’s common sense, Greg. If you’re going to bring in one and a half million people in the midst of a housing crisis, you’ve got to level the Australian people and explain to them where those people will live. Or you’ve got to admit that it’s going to exacerbate the housing pressures that Australians are feeling with higher rents, with fewer first home buyers, with fewer housing approvals. And what you’re not seeing from the government is any levelling with the Australian people because they have no idea where those 1.5 million people will live. That’s the truth of it.

Greg Jennett: We’ll watch that. Quick final one, Michael Sukkar just to clear up the Coalition’s position on the dole increase or the JobSeeker increase. Of course you have an alternative approach, which is the work test, allowing people to do more work before they lose any income, but just state exactly what approach you’ll be taking in the Parliament.

Michael Sukkar: Well, our position has been very consistent from the beginning. We think a better alternative is to allow people to earn more income before their payments start being tapered off. So it’ll allow people to earn an additional $150 a fortnight as opposed to the approach of the government, that’s our, the amendments we’ll be moving because we know there are tens of thousands of Australians who are taking on second jobs. There are 430,000 job vacancies out there. So we want to encourage people who are unemployed to work more rather than just providing more welfare.

Greg Jennett: And if unsuccessful?

Michael Sukkar: We’ll move those amendments in the Senate. If we’re not successful with those amendments, we won’t stand in the way of the bill.

Greg Jennett: Alright. We’ll watch where that goes. Michael Sukkar, thanks so much for joining us.

Michael Sukkar: Thank you. Greg.

Ends