Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Andrew Clennell, Sky News Australia

SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS AND MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW CLENNELL – SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA

Sunday 6 April, 2025

TOPICS: Coalition’s plan to tackle Labor’s housing crisis

E&OE

Andrew Clennell:
Alright, joining me live is Shadow Housing Minister Michael Sukkar. He is in the marginal Labor seat of McEwen, just taken part in a press conference with Peter Dutton with this new announcement. Michael Sukkar, thanks for your time. You’re proposing to cut the international student intake from 320,000 to 240,000 – isn’t that along the lines of what the government has been trying to achieve anyway? And you blocked their student cap legislation.

Michael Sukkar:
No, Andrew, what we’ve seen under this government is increased student numbers. They completely botched their attempt at trying to address this issue because they tried to placate all of the vested interests involved. And that means that we’ve seen more than a million migrants over two years. Our announcement today, Andrew is part of a suite of measures to help Australians battle this housing crisis. I think it’s been one of the most catastrophic errors we’ve seen from a government in recent history, Anthony Albanese running his big Australia policy at a time when fewer homes are being built, fewer homes are being started, fewer homes are being approved, and fewer Australians are able to buy a home, and meanwhile, Australians who are renting are paying 18% more in rent. Why on earth would you decide to bring in more than a million people over two years, when fewer homes are being built. Australians have suffered as a consequence, and our announcement today of significantly reducing the number of student places, foreign student places, means that in the end, more homes will be freed up for Australians. One startling statistic out of all of this, for every single purpose-built student accommodation approved in the last couple of years, there’s been 42 international students arrived. That’s 42 international students for every purpose-built accommodation approval. In the end, Australians are the ones who suffer from that. So, this is another step in, as I said, a big agenda in helping Australians own their own home because we will not wave the white flag on home ownership.

Andrew Clennell:
What’s the coalition’s net migration target?

Michael Sukkar:
Well, we will have a bit more to say about it. We obviously, in the Budget-in-Reply, a couple of year years ago, made very clear that we would reduce permanent migration. Today, we’re announcing that we’re going to significantly reduce foreign student numbers. They’re obviously two of the primary components of net overseas migration. I think I can fairly easily say, Andrew, it’s going to be significantly lower than Labor, but the precise net overseas migration number will be announced in due course, it will be lower, because we’ve been very clear from the start, Andrew, we don’t subscribe to Labor’s big Australia policy. Labor didn’t take that to the last election. They didn’t front up and look Australians in the eye and say, we want to bring in more than a million people over two years. So, they don’t have the approval of the Australian people to do that, and we’ve unfortunately suffered the catastrophic consequences as a result. We’ve announced, in relation to housing, $5 billion to fast track 500,000 homes, just like the homes you can see behind me, around our country in Greenfield sites. And we’re going to do that by funding the critical infrastructure that gets them moving. We’re going to give first home buyers access to up to $50,000 of their own super to put towards a deposit to get into a home and then requiring them to put that back into super at the end when they sell. We’re going to ban foreign buyers and temporary residents from purchasing property so they’re not competing with Australians. And of course, we’re going to reduce the demand, the foreign demand, for housing, by drastically reducing the number of foreign students. And of course, what we’ve announced with the permanent migration as well.

Andrew Clennell:
Alright, the government says net migration is going to fall to 220,000 over the forward estimates. Are you saying your net migration figure will be significantly lower than that?

Michael Sukkar:
I think it’s fair to say on any way you look at it, Andrew, our net overseas migration will be lower than Labor, and the precise number will be announced by Peter Dutton. But you can’t believe a thing that Labor says on these. If you look at every budget and every MYEFO over their duration in government, Andrew, you understand this yourself, they’ve missed those targets. So, it’s one thing to set a target, but when you’re missing those targets by hundreds of thousands, which they have cumulatively, then those targets mean nothing. It’s what you actually deliver at the end. So, we don’t believe Labor’s targets because they failed on every target, and one of the reasons we know they’ve failed on their targets is they’ve brought in more than a million people over two years – that far exceeds their targets. So, we don’t put any faith in any so-called targets going forward, because they have shown habitually that they can’t meet them.

Andrew Clennell:
Well, you mentioned some of your housing policy, superannuation for first home buyers to buy property, infrastructure fund, cut to migration, ban on foreigners buying homes. Is there another housing policy in the wings for the Coalition, and will that be on the supply side or the demand side?

Michael Sukkar:
Andrew, we’ll have more to say about housing between now and Election Day. I can assure you; we are the party of home ownership. There’s no doubt about it. Labor is very happy for Australians to rent for their whole lives. In fact, if one looks at Labor’s policies over the last three years, you would say actually, their intention is to turn Australians into lifelong renters. We think if Australians want to have that opportunity of home ownership, they should have it. As you have just recounted, there’s a suite of policies both on the supply side that are going to help but also that can support first home buyers as well. We’ll have more to say I think on both, both the supply and demand side, that’s going to support more houses into the market. We’ve got to build more homes. There’s no doubt about it. Under Labor, we’ve built fewer homes, and, perversely, brought in more migrants. We know what needs to be done in order to build more homes, because we work very closely with the industry. Labor works against the industry, because labor works with the CFMEU, who fights the industry every step of the way. Labor’s answerable to the CFMEU, and it’s Australians who pay the cost of that. The CFMEU is essentially a criminal organisation, a criminal enterprise. So… I promise you, Andrew, I promise you there will be more to say on home ownership and on housing more broadly, from the Coalition between now and Election Day, even though I think it would be fair to people to look at the vast suite of policies we put in place, ordinarily, that would be a really big agenda to take into an election. But notwithstanding that, there will be more to say I can assure you.

Andrew Clennell:
Because it sounds like you got something more in the wings for first home buyers. Would you be looking at anything like the John Howard policies of First Homeowner grants or stamp duty exemptions or anything of that nature?

Michael Sukkar:
Andrew, you’re one of the best in the business and you have to ask those questions, obviously. I’m not going to disclose what further announcements we may have between now and Election Day, but I think Australians have seen from us, we are committed to helping Australians enter the housing market. We’re not willing to have a generation of Australians unable to own their own home, which is where Labor is driving us. That’s why we have announced such a broad suite of policies, and why we look back at what we done in the past – supporting first home buyers, which is why we had more first home buyers than Labor’s had, we had more homes built, more homes started, more home approvals, lower rents, all of those things led to better housing choices for Australians. After three years of Labor that has deteriorated very rapidly. So again, to come back to today’s announcement, we don’t agree with Labor’s big Australia policy, and that’s why we will significantly reduce foreign students to take pressure off housing.

Andrew Clennell:
On housing, you’ve announced capacity for first home buyers to use $50,000 of their superannuation to buy a property, as I just mentioned. But won’t that drive up prices?

Michael Sukkar:
Well, no, because Andrew, what we are doing is we are putting in place a suite of policies that all work together. They hang together. These are not independent, separate policies that are all just floating out in the breeze. We have a calibrated plan. So when I say we’re going to bring on 500,000 new homes through our housing infrastructure program, I promise your viewers, this is not one of those Labor promises that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. We’ve done the work. We have consulted with hundreds of councils who are sitting on these projects that are ready to go. They just don’t have the funding to build the sewerage, the water infrastructure, the roads, to actually make them happen. But if they get that money, those 500,000 homes can happen very quickly, and that’s a very conservative number. We could have chosen a bigger number, but we like to under promise and over deliver. Unlike the Labor Party, who’ve promised 1.2 million homes, yet they’re going to fall hundreds of thousands of homes short. So all these things hang together. If we bring in more supply, particularly in Greenfield sites, which tends to be the province of first home buyers, Andrew, then what you’re doing is you’re releasing that pressure cooker environment that we’ve got now, where we’ve got fewer homes being built and more migrants coming in.

Andrew Clennell:
What’s your reaction to this 30% household battery subsidy that Labor is offering? Will you offer something similar? Will you look to provide a bigger subsidy?

Michael Sukkar:
Well, as Peter Dutton has just said, it seems to be an admission from the Labor Party that prices are going up even more. We know Anthony Albanese promised on 97 occasions that Australians would get a $275 energy reduction. In fact, rather than going down by $275 prices have gone up by $1,300 and essentially, what Anthony Albanese seems to be saying is, because energy prices are going to be so high, we will give some people who can afford $10,000 for a battery, some people, we’ll allow them to get off the grid, presumably because he’s suggesting that energy on the grid is going to be exponentially higher.

Andrew Clennell:
Will you have a similar offer? Because there’s been reports you’re developing similar policy.

Michael Sukkar:
I think Andrew, that’s really ultimately a question for Peter Dutton, or the shadow minister. I’m responding to what I’ve seen today and what I’ve read today, just like you have in the papers from the Labor Party. And it just seems to me that it’s an admission that prices are going up, and I think that’s a really scary thing for Australians, not only at a household level, but let’s remember the 30% more we’re paying in the supermarkets, Andrew, all of that is partly compounded by the higher energy prices being paid on the farm, in the distribution, in the cool rooms, all the way through the supply chain. So, if prices are going up for us at home, imagine what it’s going to do to our goods and imagine what it’s going to do to small businesses – we’ve already got 29,000 that have closed. I think it’s, I think it’s a huge admission of failure.

Andrew Clennell:
Michael Sukkar, just a couple of other things I want to ask you about before we finish up here. Port of Darwin, do you concede the Coalition stuffed that up in the first place by allowing the sale?

Michael Sukkar:
Well, Andrew, what I will say is that I think it’s great leadership from Peter Dutton to step forward and do what’s in our country’s best interests in a thoughtful, calibrated way. Not a desperate, last minute phone call into a local radio station, but in a really calibrated and thoughtful way. Strategic assets such as that, I think most Australians would agree should be in Australian hands or similar. And no doubt, Andrew, it’s writing an error from the past. But again, the world has changed, and I think the geopolitical environment has got tougher. It’s got more unpredictable. So, it’s partly a reflection of that.

Andrew Clennell:
Do you concede comparisons between Donald Trump and Peter Dutton are hurting you in this campaign?

Michael Sukkar:
I don’t know, Andrew. I mean, I think in the end, there’s no doubt that Donald Trump is pretty omnipresent in politics around the world at the moment. I think ultimately, Australians are more focused on bread-and-butter issues that they’re dealing with on a daily basis. And I don’t think anyone can credibly make a case that the Liberal Party of Australia represents, particularly that form of republicanism. So, look, I’ll leave it up to commentators. I think what, I think what is potentially being heard and felt out there, though, is that now is not the time for Australia to have a weak leader like Anthony Albanese, a very weak leader who can’t be trusted to stand up for Australian interests, not because he may not want to, but because I just don’t think he’s got it in him. He’s a weak leader and I think that’s ultimately what people are seeing.

Andrew Clennell:
Finally. Michael Sukkar, we’ve seen this incident involving Peter Dutton and the footy and the cameraman after Mr Albanese fell off stage. A dangerous business the campaign trail, isn’t it?

Michael Sukkar:
Yes, Andrew, if I get out of here in one piece, I’ll be very happy I saw Ghaith this morning. He’s in good spirits. The cameraman involved. So, look, as long as we all live to tell the story, that’s the main thing.

Andrew Clennell:
Indeed. Michael Sukkar, thanks for your time.

Michael Sukkar:
Thanks, Andrew.

ENDS