Patricia Karvelas:
To the government now. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition and Charities and joins me now. Hello!
Andrew Leigh:
G’day Patricia, great to be with you.
Karvelas:
I want to start where it ended, because thematically it makes sense to me, although I don’t think it’s the biggest thing that’s happening in the country right now but I do want to ask you, John Howard reckons that your Prime Minister – our Prime Minister, the country’s Prime Minister – Anthony Albanese should do a deal essentially with Sussan Ley and agree to try and push this 4‑year parliamentary term. Do you think that’s a good idea, that it should be pursued?
Leigh:
Well, Labor’s got a longstanding commitment to 4‑year terms. We of course took it to a referendum in 1988 and it was voted down because the Coalition then decided to pursue cheap political opportunism rather than national interest. We’ve now got a situation where every state and territory has moved to 4‑year terms and it’s the Commonwealth that’s looking the odd one out.
So, yes itwould be in the interest of the country. It would allow more stability having fixed terms. It would also take away some of the uncertainty. But of course, it requires bipartisan support to get through at a referendum. And unless we’re locked in with that bipartisan support, I don’tthink there’d be any point in trying.
Karvelas:
I think that we’ve learnt that about bipartisanship and referendums, so I get that point. But that’s the point of what Howard is saying – that the Prime Minister should go to Sussan Ley and say, ‘Can we get a bipartisan view,’ and then pursue it. The Prime Minister has said he doesn’t want to pursue a referendum, but if he was able to get that bipartisanship, should he make it a priority?
Leigh:
Well, the Prime Minister’s priority has not been referendums in this term – it’s been dealing with issues like the cost of living and productivity. So if the Coalition want to bring a proposal forward, then certainly they’re welcome to do that. What we saw during the referendum over a Voice to parliament was the Coalition leaving the question up in the air as to what they would do until the last minute. You certainly couldn’t have that this time around. If the Coalition wants to lead on a conversation where previously they were the blockers, then it’s open to them to do so.
Karvelas:
Okay. A couple of other issues very much in, you know, your broad area – energy rebates. The Prime Minister appears to be keeping that back on the table. Is that something the government should pursue, given the persistently high energy costs?
Leigh:
Well, we certainly can’t have energy rebates forever and we provided these energy rebates over the objections of the Liberals and Nationals because we understand that households are under pressure. We’ve done that alongside…
Karvelas:
Okay I think we’ve got some trouble there with your connection, Andrew Leigh. We’ve got you back. Okay, ‘not forever’ – take it away, Andrew Leigh!
Leigh:
We certainly can’t provide those rebates forever, Patricia. But we did them over the objections of the Liberals and Nationals alongside providing tax cuts to all Australians, free TAFE, increasing bulk billing, cheaper medicines and coming soon the thousand‑dollar instant tax deduction. So we’re always about providing more support to households and we’ll look at that carefully in the context of the budget update that’s coming in December.
Karvelas:
I get it. You can’t tell me, like, the answer. But on the question of you say you can’t keep them forever. We’ll, there’s forever and there’s a bit longer. Do you think a bit longer is different?
Leigh:
It’s under consideration by the government. But it’s sitting alongside the work we’re doing in moving to the renewables transition. While the Liberals and Nationals are fighting among themselves over the question of the renewables transition, Labor is getting on with the job of getting more wind and solar into the system.
We’re also providing subsidies for household batteries. In my own electorate we opened one of the community batteries this week. All of this is really important in order to provide cheaper power to Australians. For those who are on the default market offer, they’ll now be getting 3 hours of free power every day. Again, that’s going to help with cost of living.
Karvelas:
Look, I’ve got to take you to the RBA Deputy Governor’s comments. He gave a pretty negative forecast for inflation and said that we might, you know, this is as low as we might get with interest rates. Is that your assessment?
Leigh:
Well, I read Andrew Hauser’s speech as I do all of his speeches. I think he’s a very insightful commentator and quite an entertaining one in this case too. And he went through a range of issues about the Australian economy in which he talked about us having very strong employment performance, great universities, an engagement with the world that is second to none, strong national institutions politically and economically and the second highest median wealth per person in the world.
We have a lot of strong fundamentals and the government is focused on the productivity agenda, particularly through the competition reforms we’re pursuing. Getting rid of non‑competes for most workers will allow workers to move jobs and get better pay but also to start firms. And the work we’re doing with the states and territories through our National Competition Policy is all about boosting productivity in the way that Andrew Hauser talked about in his speech there.
Karvelas:
But confidence has slipped and inflationary pressures remain. I mean, this is a persistent problem. We still haven’t seen a lot of the productivity reforms that you talk a lot about?
Leigh:
Well, the productivity reforms are right there in getting rid of non‑competes, in the work we’re doing to crack down on supermarket price gouging and in the work that we’re doing to fund the ACCC to better address competition.
In the area of supermarkets, we’ve revamped the Food and Grocery Code over the objections of the Liberals and Nationals so that that’s now a mandatory code and farmers get a fairer deal. And for families at the checkout, we’re cracking down on shrinkflation as well as the broader work right across the economy on issues such as the Right to Repair.
Each of these reforms are modest in themselves but together they add up to a package of reforms which the Productivity Commission has estimated could boost household income by up to $5,000 a year.
Karvelas:
Look, I’ve got a breaking story that I just want to put to you and I’m aware that it’s breaking but it’s Rex creditors have approved a deed of company arrangement proposed by Air T to acquire Regional Express Holdings. This is obviously significant. It means Air T will own Rex Airlines. Do you welcome that development?
Leigh:
Rex is a really important player in the domestic airline market and we know that for many regional locations they are the primary carrier. And so, the health of Rex has been important to the government. We’ve worked through finding a buyer for Rex and ensuring that it’s able to continue servicing particularly regional Australia.
As the Assistant Minister for Competition, I’ve been looking quite carefully at the issue of competition in the airline market and it’s very clear that when you have more players, flights prices per kilometre are lower.
Karvelas:
Look, housing has been one of the big focuses for the government, as it should be. We’ve got these figures out today. Inner cities and wealthy suburbs and also fast‑growing towns have topped the list of house price surges in October. That’s new data from Cotality. Does that concern you in the first month of this 5 per cent deposit scheme that the government has announced?
Leigh:
The modelling we’ve done on the 5 per cent deposit scheme Patricia, suggests it would have only a modest upwards impact on prices, something around the order of 0.5 per cent over 5 years. So I don’t think that’s a primary driver of what we’re seeing in the housing market today.
Principally what’s going on is that Australia hasn’t been building enough homes and our home building program has lagged other comparable countries. We need to do more on that and the government is acting through construction apprentices, through moving towards more modular housing, towards working with states and territories around their planning and zoning reforms.
Karvelas:
So any house prices like this are just business as usual? You’re not – it doesn’t worry you?
Leigh:
No we don’t want to see house prices accelerating ahead of earnings, as they’ve been doing for years. But there’s obviously a big lag in the system. As you know Patricia, when you had a former government that sat on their hands for 9 years, didn’t have a housing minister, didn’t take housing seriously. Then after we came to office invariably it was going to take a while to get the system moving.
We’re doing that through the Housing Australia Future Fund, through direct investments, but also critically through the engagement on boosting housing productivity by working with states and territories to get more approval, to get that abundance of housing that I think Australians demand, and to turn around the troubling statistics we’ve seen in home ownership – particularly among young Australians.
Karvelas:
Just finally, this afternoon we’ve reported that we’re hearing that Nauru’s President has made a secretive visit to federal parliament. That’s less than a fortnight after the first members of the so‑called NZYQ cohort were quietly sent to that island.
I spoke a little earlier, as you probably know, to Andrew Wallace ahead of that big party room they’re having. He’s the Shadow Attorney‑General. He says that in fact, you’re not being transparent enough, this should have been announced, we should know. Why is the government being tricky with this?
Leigh:
Well, the government’s been engaging with Nauru, which is an important partner in the Pacific. We are their principal economic partner. And a deal last December saw us provide some $100 million dollars of budget support, particularly around issues of policing.
We engage regularly with the Nauruan government. That’s a matter of public record. And the work we do with them spans across a wide range of issues. We understand that it’s important to Nauru for Australia to be a trusted partner and as part of the Pacific step up that we’ve engaged in Nauru is on the agenda and is an important country for us to work with.
Karvelas:
Sure, but that doesn’t address, with respect – I don’t mean to cut over you or be rude – but it doesn’t address the concern that we weren’t told about the Nauruan President coming. It’s about the transparency right?
Leigh:
Look, I haven’t been involved in these latest meetings. I’ve only seen the reports as you have Patricia. But I do know that the engagement with Nauru spans a wide range of issues and is a strong relationship. It’s important to us, but it’s especially important to Nauru given where we sit in their economic relationships.
Karvelas:
We’re out of time, but I want to thank you for coming on.
Leigh:
Thanks so much Patricia.