Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Andrew Clennell – Afternoon Agenda, Sky News

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

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW CLENNELL – AFTERNOON AGENDA, SKY NEWS

Tuesday 19 September, 2023

TOPICS: NDIS Independent Review, Victoria Housing Announcement, NSW Budget, El Niño and Bushfires

E&OE

Andrew Clennell: Michael Sukkar, thanks for your time. Let me start with your opposite number, Bill Shorten’s comments about the NDIS on Sunday Agenda and how some conditions may be taken out of it after this review the Government’s doing. Have a listen to this.

(GRAB FROM SUNDAY AGENDA) Andrew Clennell: I’ve been promised this independent review in October. Will there be meaningful and game changing reform in that or will it be you saying you’ll crack down on fraud and overcharging and ask the states to chip in more. Bill Shorten: I’m looking forward to the recommendations in October for the NDIS. Is here to stay. We just want to make sure that every dollar in the scheme is getting through to the people for whom the scheme was designed. I think at the ten year anniversary of the establishment of the scheme, it’s now it’s now had this ten years of development and if you like, adolescence, it’s now hitting maturity. I think that there will be recommendations which will reflect listening to people with disability participants, advocates, providers, workplace reps and all of that. And so I think that it will have a series of recommendations which will return it to its original vision and it’ll work cooperatively with the states. So it’ll be more than just what you said, though I suspect it’ll be a bit more than that.

Andrew Clennell: Alright. Sounds like he’s actually serious. What conditions do you think could be taken out of the scheme to make it more affordable?

Michael Sukkar: Well, it’s very clear, Andrew that Bill Shorten setting the scene for the Labor Party break one of their commitments before the election. I mean, Bill Shorten wants everybody to forget what he said before the election. He went to the election saying that it was improper to talk about the sustained ability of the NDIS, that the NDIS was sustainable as it was and as he’s quoted saying, you know, you can’t walk down the halls of Parliament without a Coalition minister talking about sustainability and he disagreed. Now all we hear from him are questions about the sustainability of the scheme and we’ve got hundreds of thousands of Australians who are on the NDIS feeling very nervous about about a break of these commitments.

Andrew Clennell: Fair enough. But isn’t that the sort of reform that’s required?

Michael Sukkar: Well, let’s see what the review says itself. But there are two issues here. Firstly, I think it’s right that we hold the governments and ministers like Bill Shorten accountable for what they say before an election. You can’t go to an election saying it’s improper for the Coalition to talk about the sustainability of the scheme and now he has just spent the entire duration as minister talking about its sustainability. So that’s one thing we’ve got to hold Bill Shorten accountable for making those commitments to tens of thousands of families before the election. Now, we’ll look at absolutely the ongoing and future sustainability of the scheme, making sure that we’re making every dollar count, making sure that the scheme is getting bang for its buck and that it’s going to the people who deserve it. That’s what guided the Coalition in government. We took the scheme from 50,000 participants to half a million participants. So we oversaw its growth. But of course it’s got to be a long term sustainable scheme. But this sort of airbrushing of history that Bill Shorten would like, where we all forget what he said just a matter of 18 months ago, I think he’s wishful thinking on his behalf because many people believed him when he said sustainability wasn’t an issue and that no one’s plan would go backwards on his watch.

Andrew Clennell: Alright. He briefly ruled out means testing the scheme as the IMF have recommended. Do you support that?

Michael Sukkar: Well, we’ll see what the review says. We’ll see what the government response is. I’m not going to make those pronouncements until I see the full context of what it is being proposed by.

Andrew Clennell: Well, he ruled it out. He ruled out. He ruled out means testing. So do you have a view on that?

Michael Sukkar: Well, I have a view on what the review will say. I have a view in the context of the entire review. I don’t think you can really cherry pick one way or the other. I think it would be quite an extraordinary step to go down. So I’m not sure that was a huge concession that he provided. But I think let’s see what the review says. Let’s see what the Government’s response is. One thing I’m very certain of, though, Andrew, is the Government’s response isn’t going to be consistent with what they said before the election – where sustainability wasn’t an issue, where no one’s plan would go backwards. I suspect, sadly for many people that they were told one thing before an election and now will have a minister and a government proposing something very different. It’s in that context that we’ll consider each and every one of those or recommendations, and ultimately what’s adopted.

Andrew Clennell: We had the Prime Minister and Premier of Victoria out boasting about the social housing accelerator, as they call it today, building more social housing. What’s your reaction to that?

Michael Sukkar: Oh, Andrew, I mean, this is business as usual. Honestly, the Premier and Prime Minister don’t get a pat on the back for doing what governments have done forever, and that is build social and affordable housing. In Victoria the wait lists are longer than they’ve ever been. So this government, both at a federal level and a state level, are not going to get any pat on the back from me on every single measure housing is getting harder and going backwards. First home buyers are down, new home builds are down, new home approvals are down, rents are skyrocketing on every single metric things are getting worse.

Andrew Clennell: Alright. Well, speaking of which, the NSW budget delivered this afternoon pretty modest measures there, $300 million for the building of Social housing arm Landcom. What did you make of all that?

Michael Sukkar: Well, again, Andrew, these are a drop in the bucket. You’ve got a Federal Government with Anthony Albanese who’s bringing in 1.5 million migrants over five years, 1.5 million. So, when the Prime Minister goes out and announces his that they are funding something that’s been funded forever by federal governments, a small contribution towards 230 new homes in Carlton, when he’s bringing in 1.5 million people. I think most Australians sit back and scratch their head at that.

Andrew Clennell: Some pretty unseasonally hot weather in NSW and Queensland at the moment and the prospect of fires on the south coast of NSW. Do you think climate change is a contributor to that?

Michael Sukkar: I don’t think so. I don’t think you can say that climate change itself for any particular season, any particular event or any short period of weather can be ascribed direct to climate change. I think what needs to happen is that the states and with the support of the Federal Government, need to do everything they can to prepare. That includes backburning, that includes all of the preparatory work to get ourselves as ready as we possibly can. Australia has always been a land of fires and flooding rains and that has been the time immemorial and we need to get as good as we possibly can in preparing for these things. We now know that our society, our communities, people are living in much more regional and remote areas than they were 50 or 100 years ago, and that means that the job is even bigger as far as protecting lives and protecting livelihoods and protecting people’s homes and businesses. So, I think we need to be prepared every summer and there’ll be periods where we have unseasonably wet summers, unseasonably hot summers, and it’s obvious that in those hot summers we’ve got to be really prepared and ready for what’s coming.

ENDS