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

Wednesday 6 December, 2023

TOPICS: Mark Dreyfus outburst, NDIS Independent Review, Help to Buy housing

E&OE

Andrew Clennell: Michael Sukkar. Thanks for your time. Let’s start with Mark Dreyfus. What did you make of it?

Michael Sukkar: Well, I mean, I think the footage speaks for itself and I hope that by now Olivia’s received a phone call from Mark Dreyfus apologising. I think it’s very clear that we saw a very arrogant approach and in addition to picking up the phone to Olivia and apologising, him and Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles should be apologising to the Australian people and to go to Olivia’s question, they should be apologising to anybody who suffers because of one of these hardcore criminals being released into our community. And we now know that, alleged, there’s been an assault against a woman. That was a question from Olivia. How on earth that was too difficult for Mark Dreyfus to apologise, because let’s remember, we’ve got Australians now fearing for their safety. In that case, a woman who’s allegedly been assaulted by one of these detainees who should be in detention and Mark Dreyfus, rather than getting animated about her, got animated about the question and trying to criticise Olivia for a very reasonable question. So, yes, you should pick up the phone and actually apologise to Olivia Caisley, but more importantly, apologising to the Australian people for this absolute cock up, because the truth is, Andrew, as I reflect on the events of the last couple of weeks, this frontbench of the Albanese government is full of people who, I know we’ve got a short memory in politics, but it wasn’t that long ago that they were all arguing that boat turnbacks couldn’t happen. You could never do boat turnbacks. Including Anthony Albanese himself. Now we’ve got a rerunning of that here with the Government and Minister saying it’s all too hard, it’s too hard for us to fix this. We had to release these detainees. We know that’s not correct and Australians are suffering as a result. The least they can do is apologise. But look, Labor’s weak on borders and it’s sad that Mark Dreyfus is more concerned that a question from a journalist than he is the safety of Australians.

Andrew Clennell: What do you make of Mark Dreyfus? You see him a bit in the Parliament. I remember it was reported once he referred to Joel Fitzgibbon as the idiot from Hunter in a shadow cabinet meeting. Interesting sort of approach he has to these things.

Michael Sukkar: Yeah, I mean, I’d say that the way he responded to Olivia is probably the way he responds to many of us in the opposition when we asking questions during Question Time, or indeed in his years in opposition. So sadly, I don’t think the way he responded to Olivia was particularly out of character.

Andrew Clennell: Smartest man in the room is he?

Michael Sukkar: Well, clearly. And how dare anybody question a minister of the Crown. Heaven forbid that a journalist would question a minister of the Crown.

Andrew Clennell: That was his terminology.

Michael Sukkar: Having said all that, yeah, he’s had a rough trot lately, so I just hope he picks up the phone, apologises, draws a line under it. And I’d be very disappointed if in coming days we don’t find that he has actually made that apology either over the phone or in person.

Andrew Clennell: Well, I guess we’ll see that play out in Question Time tomorrow, that would be worth watching. The NDIS reforms now, I was a bit disappointed, I must admit. I thought they were going to tell us what they were taking out of the scheme today. Instead, the PM said, listen to Bill Shorten here, we’ve got a legislative plan. Bill Shorten will outline that at the Press Club tomorrow. What’s your reaction to the deal with the states?

Michael Sukkar: Well there was a couple of extraordinary things. There are hundreds of thousands of Australians and their families on NDIS plans who were waiting for some clarity today because they’re very nervous, particularly nervous about what the Government’s been saying. We saw no answers, just a placeholder kicked into the long grass. Sure, we’ll see the outcome of the review tomorrow. As far as the review and its recommendations, not a government response to it, I understand, but we have no clarity on any of the central questions here. Indeed, Anthony Albanese, in a confusing way said, well, no one is going to miss out here and at the same time talks about Foundational Support, which is really code for moving people off the scheme into other settings, including education settings like schools.

Andrew Clennell: You would approve of that though, wouldn’t you, cutting it?

Michael Sukkar: Well, there’s a couple of things. The other big clanger from the Prime Minister today was him saying, Well, everybody agrees that the scheme is not sustainable. And so the question is why on earth did he send Bill Shorten out before the last election to say the scheme is sustainable and Coalition ministers who are saying it’s not sustainable, shouldn’t be doing so because it is sustainable. So they said before the election the NDIS is sustainable and it’s those nasty Liberals talking about sustainability. And then the minute that get into government all we hear about is sustainability capped off with today, the Prime Minister saying, oh well, it’s unquestionable that the scheme is not sustainable. So look, we’ll look at what they propose, but if what I suspect is being signaled today that children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay are going to be either moved off the scheme or denied access to the scheme, we will look at that with a very critical eye because they are tens of thousands of children who are relying on the therapies and supports that they get through the scheme. And Bill Shorten told them before the election that their plans were safe.

Andrew Clennell: Okay, but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say cut the cost of the scheme, but don’t take anyone off it.

Michael Sukkar: No, we can absolutely say that Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese said before the election that the scheme was sustainable. Now, it’s a 180. Okay. It’s a complete 180, so we’ll look at it. But my point is this – if you going to now say people will be denied access to the scheme, what is the alternative? And we didn’t hear that today. I think a lot of people were expecting the Prime Minister to outline that today. We didn’t hear that. So we’ll look at everything with a pretty critical eye because they lied before the election, saying the scheme was sustainable. Now they’re saying it’s not sustainable. And so we want to see what the proposals are before we commit to anything.

Andrew Clennell: Is it a positive move for the government, though, to attempt to get the states to pick up more?

Michael Sukkar: Oh, look, the reality is it affects about 1 per cent of the funding of the scheme. So it’s a bit of a rounding error on the total scheme package because it’s all about future growth in the scheme.

Andrew Clennell: You think this is spin?

Michael Sukkar: Of course it’s spin. It’s about 1 per cent of the entire program. But most Australians, let’s get back to who we’re here to represent. Most Australians couldn’t care less where the dollar is coming from a state or federal government. They want to know that they can get the support they need. And of course we believe that the scheme needs to be sustainable. We’ve seen nothing from Bill Shorten and the Labor Party in 18 months. I mean the one thing he’s done as minister after years of talking about it, is he’s commissioned a review and we’ve seen nothing else. Every question that we’ve put to him – the answer has been, we’ll wait for the review, we’ll wait for the review. So let’s see what they say tomorrow. But you can’t go to an election saying the scheme is sustainable and no one’s plan will go backwards and then all of a sudden come out tomorrow and maybe do something different. So we’ll watch it with a close eye.

Andrew Clennell: The Government’s also just finally introduced this help to buy legislation.

Michael Sukkar: Supposed to start on the 1st of January this year. So it’s 12 months late.

Andrew Clennell: Your reaction on that? Will you be supporting it?

Michael Sukkar: Well we’ll look at it again closely. I think it’s a very small scheme. It’s a very nice program. This is not particularly novel. Shared equity schemes exist throughout the country. Very few people qualify. Very few people are interested in co-owning a home with the government. But we’ll look at it closely. It’s gone off to a committee now where it’ll be scrutinised. We’ll have a look at it and we’ll make a decision when the final Bill comes before us, because there’s still, again, a lot of detail that’s uncertain here, including which was not said before the election, that every state now is going to be required to legislate in their own jurisdiction to make this thing work, which is certainly not something that was promised before the election. So clearly, the federal government is pushing this onto the states, which we want to get to the bottom of before we commit one way or the other.

ENDS