Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with James MacPherson (The Bolt Report)- Sky News Australia

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

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH JAMES MACPHERSON HOSTING THE BOLT REPORT – SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA

Wednesday 23 October, 2024

TOPICS: Middle East crisis, Housing Infrastructure Programme

E&OE

James MacPherson: Well, for the past couple of nights, I’ve talked about how I wish we could get back to the old Australia. You know, a simpler time when people could afford to buy a house. And if not buy a house or at least rent a place to live and, you know, maybe pay their electricity bills. But that dream seems a long, long way away. The Business Council of Australia this week pushed for the Government to dump stamp duty as a way to help more people get into the property market. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil surprisingly agreed, saying stamp duty was a bad tax. Imagine that – a Labor politician saying a tax was bad, but that’s about the extent of the Government’s housing policy. We’ve got Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers at war over whether to make changes to negative gearing. Meanwhile, they continue to let record numbers of immigrants into the country with no plan as to how to house them. Joining me is Shadow Housing Minister Michael Sukkar. Michael, thanks for your time tonight. I want to ask you about the Coalition’s $5 billion Housing Infrastructure Programme that you’ve just announced. But before we get to that, I want to ask you, as a Lebanese Australian, the war in the Middle East is really reaching a boiling point. The IDF has begun targeting infrastructure related to the financial arm of Hezbollah, with a military spokesperson warning Lebanese residents to steer clear of those areas ahead of the assault. This is a big escalation. I know you’ve got family in Lebanon. What are you hearing? And the people that you know there, how are they reacting to all of this?

Michael Sukkar: Well, obviously, James, it’s a hugely troubling time for everybody in Lebanon. But the truth here is, is that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation, is not fighting on behalf of Lebanon. It’s a terrorist organisation that takes its orders from Tehran. It’s a proxy of the Iranian regime. And I suspect most Lebanese are celebrating its downfall and hoping that the IDF can take Hezbollah out once and for all. Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, is one that no one is going to – in Lebanon is going to – bemoan their downfall. But it, of course, causes huge issues for Lebanese. And sadly, Hezbollah has been bringing this sort of trouble on to Lebanon for a very long time. And so my view is that hopefully the IDF can deal with Hezbollah quickly. They’ve obviously been doing a very effective job thus far. Hopefully they can finish it off and Lebanon can get back to being one of the most wonderful countries in the Middle East without Iran having their finger in the pie, so to speak.

James MacPherson: Yeah, very true. Well certainly our thoughts for your family members you’ve got there. We trust they are kept safe. To the housing crisis – Anthony Albanese certainly doesn’t seem to have much of a plan, but you do. Over the weekend you announced a $5 billion infrastructure fund to unlock up to half a million new homes. Tell us how the Coalition are proposing that would work.

Michael Sukkar: Well, thanks, James. Yes, we announced the Housing Infrastructure Programme to unlock 500,000 homes because over the last couple of years in speaking to hundreds of councils and developers, it’s very clear that one of the major things holding back housing development in this country is a lack of funding of the critical infrastructure that you need to get housing built. And we’re not talking about particularly exciting infrastructure. We’re talking about things as basic as water and sewerage and telecommunications and access roads, but things at the moment that there’s no money to fund. And if you can’t get the sewerage and water in and the telecommunications and the roads, then you don’t get any housing projects approved. So we’ve identified hundreds of these projects around the country where with the relatively modest Commonwealth investment, you can unlock new housing developments. And as I said, 500,000 homes will be unlocked by our Housing Infrastructure Programme with an investment of $5 billion. These are things that are not being done at the moment. And sadly, as you say, James, we’re building fewer homes than we’ve built for a very long time. We’ve got housing approvals at ten year lows, we’ve got first home buyers down, we’ve got rents up and meanwhile we’ve got Anthony Albanese running a massive migration program. So the problem’s big, the problem’s getting worse and that’s why we felt we needed to step up with the Housing Infrastructure Programme, really huge program to unlock 500,000 homes.

James MacPherson: Well, I mean, you certainly write about the immigration issue, letting thousands of people into the country with no means to house them was always going to end in tears. Your announcement sounds great, but what do you do with the red tape? How do you get local governments to agree to this and get things moving faster?

Michael Sukkar: Well, the beauty here is, James, we’ve identified shovel ready projects. So the truth is, there are tonnes of projects out there that are sitting on a bureaucrat’s desk or state government desk awaiting approval. The projects we’re talking about are typically projects that there are no other impediments in the way. There are no sort of bureaucratic impediments. The only impediment is the infrastructure. And when you have that infrastructure funded, you can actually get going. Of course, more systemic work should be done by the states predominantly to cut red tape and get the bureaucrats out of the way. But why this programme is so powerful is we’re not relying on any bureaucrats ticking off on it. These are shovel ready projects and a huge caveat of this program, the Housing Infrastructure Programme, is use it or lose it. If the project doesn’t get started in 12 months, you lose the funding and that money will go somewhere else.

James MacPherson: Okay, well, that’s good motivation. Just before I let you go, one other thing that just really annoys me is this issue not of red tape, but of green tape. You’ve got a Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, making a big deal about getting rid of gas for new homes. Labor and the Greens to me seem more concerned about reducing emissions and increasing productivity. Builders are having to go out of their way to be green and all that does is increase costs. How do you combat that issue?

Michael Sukkar: Well, as part of our announcement on the weekend, in addition to the Housing Infrastructure Programme, we announced a ten year freeze to the National Construction Code. And the National Construction Code is one of the means by which more and more green red tape is being put on housing projects. Estimates are that the latest changes to the NCC increased housing by about $30,000 a home or up to $60,000 in some cases. So we’ve said the freezing the NCC changes, no more changes for ten years to ensure that we don’t keep piling more of this green tape onto houses, because in the end, it’s not the developers who wear these costs. These costs are ultimately borne by the people who buy the homes at the end and a $30,000 or $60,000 increase in a home could be the difference between a first time buyer being able to afford the home or not being able to.

James MacPherson: Michael Sukkar, thanks for your time tonight.

Michael Sukkar: Thanks so much, James.

ENDS