ANDREW CLENNELL:
I’m joined by the Minister for Housing, Julie Collins. Julie Collins, thanks for your time this Sunday morning. Let me start with negotiations over the Housing Australia Future Fund. The Greens want you to commit two and a half billion dollars a year to affordable housing, up from the $500 million that would be provided if a Housing Future Fund was set up. Is there any prospect of you raising that $500 million figure to get this deal through?
JULIE COLLINS:
We've been pretty clear we're happy to have discussions right across the Parliament, which we are doing. In terms of the investments that we are making at the moment, of course, the Future Fund is not the only thing we are doing. This year for example, from 1 July we're investing $1.7 billion on top of the $575 million that we've released immediately for more social and affordable rental homes. So, it's not the only thing we are doing, the Housing Australia Future Fund, but it is a critical point and a critical thing that we want to get up to work with states and territories, with community housing providers, and indeed with institutional investors to leverage more investment into social and affordable rental homes right across the country.
CLENNELL:
And the Greens want you to work towards a national rental cap or freeze. I guess it's a bit like in the ACT where landlords can only raise rents 1.1 times above CPI. Could we ever see the states and territories broadly institute such a system?
COLLINS:
Look, let's be clear here. The Federal Government doesn't have the power here, Andrew. The states and territories do, as you point out. States and territories, some of them have already ruled this out. What we have done is put renters’ rights on the National Cabinet agenda. We're working with states and territories to have more consistency across the country around what rights renters actually have, so that renters do know their rights, and we're working collaboratively with states and territories across that. What we have said very clearly is that we want to work with states and territories to get more homes on the ground more quickly. We ultimately have a supply issue, which is why we need our bill ‑ the Housing Australia Future Fund bill ‑ passed by the Senate in coming weeks.
CLENNELL:
It's been put to me the Opposition and the Greens might just seek to amend that bill to say, no fund, but let's fund affordable housing $500 million a year without any Housing Future Fund. What would be your reaction if they pull that on this week?
COLLINS:
The whole point of the Fund is that it's there in perpetuity, so that institutional investors, community housing providers have certainty that this funding will be available each and every year to leverage more investments, to get more homes on the ground. We can't have Liberal members, Coalition members, writing to me saying we have a housing issue, they want more houses, and then blocking our Housing Australia Future Fund bill in the Senate.
CLENNELL:
So, it seems inevitable this legislation will get voted down in the Senate this week, and then that'll give the government a double dissolution trigger, won't it?
COLLINS:
We're working across the Parliament, as I've said, Andrew. We're still negotiating in good faith. When we got the bill through the lower house, through the House of Representatives, we had all of the crossbenchers other than the Greens support the Bill. And indeed, we had one Liberal member cross the floor to support the bill. So, we'll keep having conversations until the final vote in the Senate. We want to get this bill through because we know that too many vulnerable Australians are relying on us to get this Bill through. We're talking about 30,000 social and affordable homes in the first five years of the fund. We're talking about 4000 of these for women and children fleeing family violence, and older women at risk of homelessness. We're talking about more homes for veterans. If people were really serious about what is happening in housing in Australia today, they should pass this bill in the Senate.
CLENNELL:
I wanted to ask you now about this National Housing Accord, launched with much fanfare last year. We haven't heard much about it since. How are negotiations with the states on that going?
COLLINS:
We're obviously in close discussions with the states and territories. They're signed up to the Accord, as has local government, as has the construction sector, as has institutional investors. It starts on 1 July, 2024. We're bringing together planning ministers in the second half of this year, looking at what reforms can be done, what can we do, what can other tiers of government do to get more supply on the ground more quickly. We, of course, have also got the Supply and Affordability Council looking at the data and the evidence about what does work when it comes to getting more homes on the ground more quickly. What are the easy wins, what are the things we can do quickly to get more supply on the ground. You saw some of that in the last Budget with our build to rent changes and the depreciation around that, our additional $2 billion in financing for more social and affordable rental homes ‑
CLENNELL:
When I spoke ‑
COLLINS:
We’re working at every opportunity to get more homes on the ground more quickly.
CLENNELL:
When I spoke to the Prime Minister on Friday at this Economic Outlook Summit, he did indicate that the states had to do more heavy lifting on zoning and density. Is that your view?
COLLINS:
What the states have signed up to do is to do some reforms to get more homes on the ground more quickly. We know that there are issues in terms of supply. This is about each state looking at what can they do, how do they free up supply. Local governments looking at how do they free up supply, how do we get well located homes. I mean, we're talking about homes that need to be close to where people work, close to services, close to educational institutions.
CLENNELL:
It's been put to me the states might come back at you and say, can't you make some tweaks in a grandfathered sense to negative gearing and capital gains to allow more young people to have the ability to own homes? In other words, you're saying that the states do more on density and zoning, etcetera. They'll say, well, how about making some tax changes?
COLLINS:
We've obviously stepped up as a Federal Government for the first time in more than a decade. They've got a Federal Government that says, we want to help with this. We understand no tier of government is going to solve this alone. The former government said this is just an issue for the states and territories. We're not saying that. We're working with them. The Housing Australia Future Fund is part of that. All of the states and territories support the fund and want it through the Parliament. We want to work with states and territories in a collaborative way to get more homes on the ground. Essentially, we have a supply issue. We need more supply of houses, houses of every type, social homes, affordable homes, homes for people to purchase.
CLENNELL:
When does this home equity scheme start? Because it was supposed to start in January.
COLLINS:
We never had a timeline for our Help to Buy shared equity scheme. We are working hard to implement this. We're working with states and territories and with financial institutions on what does this look like, and we will be introducing it as soon as we can.
CLENNELL:
This term?
COLLINS:
Absolutely. We're committed to introducing our shared equity scheme.
CLENNELL:
All right. As well as the Minister for Housing, you're the Minister for Homelessness. What can you tell us about how things are going on that front with this cost-of-living crisis?
COLLINS:
Yeah, we know far too many Australians are finding it difficult to get a safe, affordable roof over their heads. We want to work, as I said, with everybody, with states, territories, local government, to get more homes on the ground more quickly. What we saw with the recent Census data this year is that we have more people who have no safe, affordable place to call home, which is why we invested more with the states and territories into homeless services. We added an additional $67.5 million to the $1.7 billion that we're giving states and territories for the one year from 1 July. We want to work together with the other tiers of government to try and turn some of this around.
CLENNELL:
And as Small Business Minister, what do you say to the accusation of the government's various IR changes, including Same Job Same Pay legislation, could harm small business? What are you hearing from business?
COLLINS:
What I'm hearing from businesses when I talk to businesses, their biggest issue still is staff shortages, particularly skilled staff shortages. Which is why, of course, we've created Jobs and Skills Australia. Which is why we're doing Fee Free TAFE. Which is why we're doing additional university places. You've seen another announcement from the Education Minister today about micro credentialing and getting people more qualifications faster. We want to continue to work to get more skilled staff for small businesses and businesses right across the economy.
CLENNELL:
I just wanted to ask now about this Katy Gallagher issue that the opposition are running with. What's your reaction to the suggestion Ms Gallagher misled the Senate over this matter?
COLLINS:
Well, she's been pretty clear that that's not the case. I think the thing that really disturbs me here, Andrew, is that we have a person that's come forward with a very serious sexual assault allegation. What we have seen is private diary entries, text messages, phone calls across the media right across the country. I don't think that bodes well for people that want to come forward with these types of allegations. Sorry, I'm getting a lot of feedback.
CLENNELL:
I'm sorry to hear that. I won't keep you much longer. I just wonder, on the principle, as a minister, if you were to mislead Parliament, would you see that as a sacking offence?
COLLINS:
Look, Katy's been very clear that's not what's happened here. She's been out straight away. She's cleared it up. I mean, what we have here is an allegation that happened under a Liberal government, a national Coalition government between two Liberal staffers, allegedly. And what we have here is people questioning Labor ministers and they have been very clear about what they knew. What we don't know is what the Liberal ministers knew and what happened under the Liberal government. I mean, this was four years ago.
CLENNELL:
And just finally, and I apologise about the feedback you're having there. If the National Anti Corruption Commission looked at the compensation of Ms Higgins, what do you think they would find?
COLLINS:
I think that they would find that the usual process was followed as it should be, as it has been. There's nothing to see there. I mean, clearly we are doing absolutely everything that we need to do ‑ Katy Gallagher has come out, she has been completely up‑front. This has gone through the normal legal processes, as it always does.
CLENNELL:
Julie Collins, Housing Minister from Hobart this morning. Thanks so much for your time.
COLLINS:
Thank you, Andrew.