Kieran Gilbert:
We’ve got the Housing Minister with me, Clare O’Neil, thanks for your time. I’ll get to specific issues in terms of construction, because I know the Middle East crisis is pushing up costs for builders as well right now, and I want to get your thoughts on the housing question. But the Prime Minister, we’ve just heard the breaking news, he is going to address the nation tonight. Why is that an important thing for him to do right now?
Clare O’Neil:
Australian Prime Ministers traditionally address the nation in times of great challenge. I think it’s fairly clear that what’s going on in the Middle East is having widespread ramifications for the country, not just for Australians who are paying more at the petrol bowser but for every sector of our economy. The Prime Minister will be talking about the status of what’s going on in Iran and the plans that the government has to protect the Australian community from the worst.
Gilbert:
Angus Taylor, in that news conference, he says he wants to see greater clarity on what will trigger rationing and what – greater clarity in terms of restrictions around shipping and our oil supply. Is that a fair demand from him ahead of that address tonight?
O’Neil:
There’s been a huge amount of clarity, Kieran, and I wonder if Angus Taylor has taken the time to look at what National Cabinet talked about earlier this week and the clear plan that they have put in place. They’ve done exactly what governments should be doing at a moment like this – set out very clearly what the stages of assessment of the impacts of the crisis in Iran are going to – how they’re going to be managed by Australian governments. And, you know, as you know, the states are extremely powerful in areas that are very important here. We need to work together in lockstep, and they’ve set out a very clear plan to do that.
Gilbert:
Do you think people want reassurance as well from the leadership right now in terms of that address tonight? It’s about reassuring people that things are okay? Because there is a lot of uncertainty right now.
O’Neil:
There is uncertainty, and how could there not be, Kieran. And that’s certainly not just confined to Australia. Fuel is central to everything that we do as human beings in modern life. I think the Prime Minister’s provided great leadership so far, and this is a continuation of that. I think he wants every Australian to have the same information, have it from the same reliable source – directly from the Prime Minister – and for him to be able to step through in further detail what the plan is for the future.
Gilbert:
Do you think – before we get on to the housing question and construction, it’s linked in a sense, because it goes to this question of abundance and self‑reliance. Would you like, and do you think voters would like, Australians to be tapping into what we have and have been gifted in this huge nation of ours, and using our resources to a greater extent? Use what is underneath the ground? Because at the moment we’re not doing that. We’re not self‑sufficient when we could be.
O’Neil:
Yeah, Kieran, I think one of the absolute no‑brainers from what’s happening in Iran is the urgency of Australia to become energy independent. So, you know, there’s Liberals who are talking at the moment about the need for us to move away from net zero. That is exactly backwards to what we need to be doing.
We have the most abundant supply of renewables energy of any country in the world. Renewables are cheaper than other new forms of energy, and our country is already successfully making this transition. And I’d just point out to everyone who’s watching at home, there isn’t a global power that can stop us from using the sun and wind that we’ve been gifted as endowments to Australia.
Gilbert:
But freight trucks run on diesel.
O’Neil:
Yeah, all this is going to take time.
Gilbert:
Ninety per cent of our economy runs on diesel –
O’Neil:
All this is going to take time, and I really accept that. It’s not as though we can make these changes tomorrow.
Gilbert:
So in the meantime, shouldn’t we be using what is there?
O’Neil:
Well, as you’re probably aware, Kieran, our government has opened up 15 new areas for exploration and extraction. These are not quick fixes, though; it takes some time to mine new sources of energy for our country. But I think one thing any politician surely would take away from the current context is we need to stand on our own 2 feet. And the way that I see us doing that in the medium and longer term is through this massive endowment of renewables that we’ve been gifted.
Gilbert:
We need a lot of gas, though, a heap of gas. And we’ve got a lot of it here. We should tapping into it, shouldn’t we?
O’Neil:
Well, I mean –
Gilbert:
Like the Beetaloo Basin can provide energy for this country for 200 years.
O’Neil:
Yep, and that’s why our government takes a really practical approach to these things. We don’t say only renewables as Australia’s future. We are obviously going to continue to need gas for some time. And that’s why –
Gilbert:
And oil.
O’Neil:
And that’s why you’ve seen the Environment Minister over time make good, rational decisions about areas that he sees are open for further exploration for the gas that we need as a country. But the absolute end point of this must be a country that’s powered by renewables, because these are – this is the cheapest form of energy there is, Kieran. We’re already, you know, massively using renewables to power our country, and that should only continue.
Gilbert:
On the question on housing, the Master Builders say that this means you won’t get to your target of 1.2 million homes. The Middle East crisis is just making everything cost more, is delaying construction. Do you accept that you won’t hit that target now?
O’Neil:
Look, what’s going on in the Middle East certainly doesn’t make it any easier. But before we get into the impacts on construction, can I just say to the Master Builders, to HIA, to the UDIA, to the plumbers, the union movement who work in construction, they are working in absolutely close partnership with our government at the moment on the significant impacts that this is going to have on construction.
I want – if you’re a builder at home, I want you to know that you’ve got really powerful advocates who are coming into this building and pushing the point for what’s going on in residential construction, and we’re working really closely with the sector at the moment on how we can support them.
Gilbert:
They’re saying you’re going to fall 200,000 homes short. Is that a fair estimate?
O’Neil:
Look, we set the 1.2 million homes target as north‑star for the country, not just the Commonwealth but every level of government, including the private sector. Most of the organisations who work in housing are fiercely supportive of that target. It was deliberately ambitious, Kieran. To reach it, we’d have to build more homes than we’ve ever built in one year and do it 5 years running.
Now, we did that deliberately because we don’t want to see incremental change on housing; we want to see something more deeper and more fundamental. The setting of the target has already resulted in very substantial policy change around the country. But there’s no question that there’s a lot more work to do. But we’re making good progress.
Gilbert:
Are we headed for a recession, do you think? Given that this disruption to all of these various sectors, including the one that you have coverage of?
O’Neil:
Look, it’s just too early to say Kieran. One thing we can see is that the war in Iran has already had an impact on Australia’s economy. The longer this conflict goes for the, worse the impact is going to be. And that’s why the Prime Minister has been really clear in recent days to say that it is time for the US to give us clarity about what the end point of this is. We want a time frame to see this conflict brought to the close. It is causing significant damage not just in Australia but all over the world, and we need to bring this thing to an end.
Gilbert:
And in terms of, you know, specifically that industry, housing, of course, is the flow‑on effects of construction generally, this is, again, another choke point. We’ve seen it a lot over recent years through COVID and again now. Do we have the workers? Do we have the material to be able to continue not just in housing but broadly in construction?
O’Neil:
There’s lots of challenges, Kieran. There’s no question about that. And if housing was an easy problem to solve, we wouldn’t be in the guts of a 40‑year‑old housing challenge. What I can say is that this is a resilient sector, and the last thing that they need right now is commentators talking down their capacity to withstand some of this – these issues that they’re confronting.
And I just point you to we had Metricon in the paper yesterday talking about how construction costs for them have actually declined over the past year. These are important inputs. We’ve got solid foundations for the sector. But there’s no doubt this is having an impact, and that’s why we’re working in such close partnership with the players.
Gilbert:
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, thank you, as always.
O’Neil:
Great, thanks, Kieran.