Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Stephen Cenatiempo – 2CC Talking Canberra

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

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC TALKING CANBERRA

Friday, 18 August 2023

TOPICS: National Cabinet, Housing

E&OE

Stephen Cenatiempo: The national cabinet meeting earlier this week decided it was going to make some big grandstanding statements about trying to fix the housing crisis. And the prime minister told us something that apparently we didn’t know, and that is that supply is the answer. Well, I think we all knew the answer to that, but I still question how we’re actually going to increase that supply based on the announcement that came out of national Cabinet. To talk to us more about this, we’re joined by the shadow housing minister, Michael Sukkar. Michael, good morning.

Michael Sukkar: Good morning, Stephen. Good to be with you.

Stephen Cenatiempo: This is from what I can read between the lines here. It’s just an extension of their previous announcements. So rather than pretending they’re going to build a million homes over five years, they’re now going to build 1.2 million.

Michael Sukkar: It’s a great summary. They made an announcement in October of last year that they had an aspiration. They didn’t even say promise, an aspiration – to build a million homes over five years. All housing data since then has shown that they’re going to fall hopelessly short of that. Not that a million homes over five years is ambitious anyway, that they’re going to fall short of that because building activities fallen off a cliff. Now they’ve pulled out another arbitrary figure of 1.2 million with absolutely no explanation of how they will get there. They had months in the lead up to this national Cabinet meeting. And as I’ve said on a number of occasions, never has a meeting promised so much and delivered so little because, you know, we were expecting to see a really specific identified number of projects around the country with new dwellings associated with each of them, with time frames of where they would be built, who they would be built by, who they would be funded by. And we had none of that, which means that none of that work’s been done. And, you know, we’ve all heard state governments and territory governments over many years talk about planning reform, zoning reform and nothing happens. The situation keeps getting worse. And that’s what is going to happen now. The thing that they wouldn’t mention, Stephen, and the topic that no one was brave enough to talk about was that simultaneously the Labor government are gearing up migration and planning on bringing in one and a half million new migrants over five years with absolutely no idea of where those people are going to live.

Stephen Cenatiempo: Yeah, and, look in and of itself, bringing more migrants into the country isn’t the problem. It’s not being prepared for them, that is. But the problem I see here is when you talk about planning laws and regulations and red tape and and that clearly is part of the biggest part of the problem. But I don’t understand how a federal government can actually commit to building one home, let alone 1.2 million. The federal government is not going to build a single dwelling.

Michael Sukkar: Well, they’re certainly not going to under what has been proposed by Anthony Albanese at the National Cabinet. Look, there are things there are things the Federal Government can do. But we see I mean, particularly we see it to be frank, with a long term Labor government in the Territory, it’s this desire to choke supply and I’m not here to just bash the ACT government. But I know that I do that enough for everybody. But, you know, no government probably around the country takes supply of housing more than the the ACT government. Let’s be frank, The reality here is if you are a person trying to save for a new home, trying to get that deposit together, if you’re a renter struggling with rents that have increased by nearly 12% over the last 12 months, if you’ve got a mortgage and you’re struggling under skyrocketing mortgage repayments, nothing that was discussed at the National Cabinet meeting would make you feel any better about the difficult situation you’re facing, which is why the entire meeting was just a fizzer. It was a complete fizzer and it was built up to be something that would deliver tangible outcomes for all of those people. I described renters, people trying to save, people with a mortgage, and there was absolutely nothing for any of those people. They’ve run out of ideas and there’s just no plan or agenda from this government on housing.

Stephen Cenatiempo: So let’s talk about the alternative, because when you were last in government, Zed Seselja had an idea that we were going to release there was attractive land that the CSIRO land owns here in Canberra directly to developers. My suggestion earlier this week was that there needs to be an immediate audit of Federal government land that can be released suitably for residential housing. Can the Federal Government bypass the states and local government to actually fast track that? If they identify you know, this many acres of land, can they go direct to developers and say, Hey, listen, turn this into blocks of land for us?

Michael Sukkar: Yeah they can, and you know, when Commonwealth government owns land it’s able to effectively and with some caveats, be its own planning authority. So you can move those things and make them happen quickly. And we’ve done those with former defense sites and other Commonwealth land around the country. And you’re right, former Senator Seselja was very keen to move on a number of disused pieces of former Commonwealth land and to make that happen very quickly. It seems, particularly in the ACT, it seems your government is really opposed to detached housing and is really only focused on really high density living. At the moment, the truth of it, Stephen, is detached homes are typical greenfield suburban lots, the cheapest form of housing because construction costs are now getting up to 12, 13, 14, $15,000 per square meter for an apartment. So delivering affordable housing and particularly for first home buyers or even social and affordable housing, detached housing is a really great and affordable option that. But, you know, many governments are only interested in apartments. They don’t want homes. And, you know, my argument is you need to give people options. Not everybody wants to live in an apartment. Some people do, but not everybody does.

Stephen Cenatiempo: Have you been able to identify if the federal government was indeed to take a proactive approach like that and and become its own planning authority? How many dwellings or how many blocks of land could be released in a short period of time?

Michael Sukkar: Well, it’s pretty significant state. And then we’ll have more to say about this over the next 12 months or so in relation to a range of policies with respect to housing, I think the the biggest concern, the most concerning thing out of the National Cabinet meeting was it seems to me that the Labor Party has walked away from home ownership. They have waved the white flag on home ownership and they seem to be quite relaxed about the prospect of a country where the next generation of Australians, our children, our grandchildren, unlike us, don’t have a realistic prospect of owning their own home in their lifetime. And that’s not a situation that I can accept. You know, I’m from a migrant family and, you know, a big reason for why so many migrants move to Australia is that they do get that opportunity. An opportunity they wouldn’t have got in their own in their own country. So I often raise migration in the context of, you know, we’ve got to have well-planned migration. And when I criticise the government for bringing one and a half million people, it’s not that I’m opposed to migration, I’m a product of migration, but it must be planned migration that’s not only in the best interests of Australians who are already living here, but the people that you are inviting to your country. And I don’t think we should leave with the prospect of Labor saying, look, if you know, we’re going to accept people not having even the option of owning a home in their lifetime. And that’s, I think our mission and our focus as an opposition – will be how do we make that a realistic aspiration for all Australians? Not, you know, not because you’re a surgeon, not because you’re a Rhodes Scholar, but because you’re a hardworking Australian who’s just got an ordinary job. But you work hard, you should be able to own a home in this country. And that’s got to be our ambition and it’s got to be what we deliver from the Federal Parliament.

Stephen Cenatiempo: Yeah, as I always say, home ownership is more of more than just a roof over your head. Michael, appreciate your time this morning.

Michael Sukkar: Good on you, Stephen, thanks so much.

Ends