James Glenday:
Now, another federal election is of course on the horizon. And although Australians still don’t have an election date, it hasn’t stopped the major parties from starting to announce new policies and, of course, pledging funding. Yesterday, federal Labor matched the Opposition’s policy of stopping foreign investors from buying existing homes for 2 years. And for more on that, we are joined by the Housing Minister, Clare O’Neil, who is at Melbourne Airport this morning.
Minister, good morning. It’s lovely to have you back on the program.
O’Neil:
Great to see you, James. Thanks for having me on the show.
Glenday:
Have you always personally supported the idea of banning foreign investors or is this something you just thought might be a good idea to get it off the agenda ahead of an election campaign?
O’Neil:
Well, James, as you mentioned, the Australian Government announced yesterday that we’re going to implement a 2‑year ban on foreign residents – foreign citizens rather, from buying Australian property. And we’re doing that because Australians are under real housing pressure today. I want all of the energies of the Australian Government focused on relieving those pressures and perhaps most importantly, making sure we get more Australian young people into our housing market.
Now, you asked if I’ve always believed in this. The honest truth is, yes, I feel really strongly about this. We’ve got serious problems with housing in our country at the moment. And that’s why you’re seeing our government throw absolutely everything at this problem. We’ve got this $32 billion package where we’re building more homes, we’re trying to help renters, and we’re getting more Aussies into home ownership.
Glenday:
Okay. I think some of your colleagues, were not such big believers, but let’s leave that there. This move is going to capture less than half a per cent, give or take, of the housing market. So, will it have any effect at all on house prices?
O’Neil:
Yeah. So, James, this is not a silver bullet and no one’s pretending that it is. And it’s not a silver bullet because there is no silver bullet to Australia’s housing crisis. And I think people at home understand that if this was an easy problem to solve, then a government would have done it a long time ago. What you’re seeing here is that we’ve got a housing crisis in our country that’s been a generation in the making. We’re the first Australian Government since the Second World War to stand up and say we are going to take this on because we’re so concerned about the fate of young Australians.
Will it make a difference? The answer is yes. It’ll mean thousands of Australian families get the opportunity to own their own home that otherwise wouldn’t have had that chance. And if we keep making moves like this, then we are going to make a difference to the housing opportunities of Australians.
Glenday:
Sorry, just to take you back to the question, specifically with foreign investors, though, this is only going to have the tiniest impact on the margins though, right? I mean, we’ve got to be realistic about what this is going to do.
O’Neil:
What it means is that thousands of Australian families will get the chance to own their own home that otherwise wouldn’t have had that chance. And I’d say to you again, James, there’s not one thing that we need to do about housing that’s going to solve the whole problem. What’s actually required here is Commonwealth government stepping up, showing leadership.
I just remind your viewers that under the previous government, for most of their period in office, they didn’t even have a Housing Minister. That’s how checked out they were. What we’ve done is come to office and see there’s real housing pressures being faced by the community and we’re stepping up and trying to make a pretty big transformation to what’s going on in our housing market here in Australia.
Glenday:
We’ll hear from the Opposition and their view later in the program. Why not do something more significant, significant then in this space that a lot of experts have been calling for some time, like changing the capital gains tax exemption or limiting negative gearing to just new homes? Most people say that would make a big difference. Is that just too toxic for you at the ballot box?
O’Neil:
No, I mean, really understand that question, James, and let me. Let me just explain something really clearly to your viewers. The reason that we’ve got a housing crisis in our country is because really, for 30 or 40 years, we have not been building enough homes in Australia. And so almost everything the Australian Government is making sure that we provide more housing for Australians and then give Australians the opportunity to buy into those homes.
So, that’s why this is just one piece of this really, really broad agenda for housing. $32 billion where we are building more homes, 1.2 million homes that we’re building with the states, adding to that stock of social and affordable housing. We’re helping renters. Renters have had 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance since we’ve been in government. And then on the home ownership side, 140,000 Australians have gotten into the housing market in our in our term of government so far because of government assistance.
Glenday:
Sorry to interrupt again, but I just want to be clear, you’re not going to touch capital gains tax or negative gearing heading to the election.
O’Neil:
No, no, James. And the reason for that is because we need to focus our efforts on building more supply. And I think your viewers would have heard the Prime Minister say really, really clearly that if we can’t prove that measures won’t interrupt supply, then we’re not going to proceed with them. So, that’s why a big focus – building, supporting renters, helping homeowners.
Glenday:
Just before I let you go, I know you’ve got a plane to catch. You’re former Home Affairs Minister – how much money did we give Nauru so they would take stateless men who are stuck here with criminal histories?
O’Neil:
Look, I’ll let Tony Burke speak to the specifics of this, but community safety is obviously the most important priority of our government, and we’re very grateful to the government of Nauru in assisting us in this matter. Nauru was a great friend of Australia, and I think you’ve seen that with the announcement that Minister Burke made yesterday.
Glenday:
All right, we’ll have a little bit more on that later in the show. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
O’Neil:
Thanks.