MATTHEW DORAN:
Julie Collins, welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. Reading the tea leaves, gazing at the crystal ball. What are you thinking is going to be the outcome of voters decision making when the polls close tomorrow night?
JULIE COLLINS:
Well, obviously we won't know until the polls close tomorrow night. Matt, one thing we know about the Tasmanian election system is that it's complicated. We have multi‑member Hare‑Clark electorates, and I think anybody that says they know the result is not telling the truth because none of us know. And of course, Tasmanians, most Tasmanians, are yet to vote and they'll head to the polls tomorrow.
DORAN:
Does the fact that they're also not only multi‑member electorates, but you're expanding the number of members in those electorates from five to seven, does that sort of increase that unknown factor?
COLLINS:
Absolutely it does. What I know Tasmanians want is stable majority government and that, of course, is what Rebecca White and her team can do. Rebecca White's a terrific leader of the Labor party. They've got a stable and united team. They've been focusing on the things that matter to Tasmanians, such as cost of living, such as health and housing. They have been working incredibly hard. What we know from the opposite, of course, from the current Liberal government is that they have lost so many Ministers now, I've actually lost count. I know it's more than half a dozen the last ten years they've been in government and things are getting worse in terms of ambulance ramping, in terms of health, in terms of housing. What they need, of course, is a change of government for Tasmanians. And I know too many Tasmanians are doing it tough and I want to work with Rebecca White, the Labor government, to turn that around.
DORAN:
I know something Rebecca White said in the last week or so is that she's not prepared to do any deals with the Greens, any deals with other minor parties to secure support. Given the high number of independents that are in play in this election and also the strength of the Greens, the forecast success, or maybe success is too strong a word. But certainly the discussion around the Jacqui Lambie Network is Labor shooting itself in the foot, ruling out deals this far in advance. Considering just how complicated it could become.
COLLINS:
Look, we've been there before when it comes to deals, Matt. We actually want to govern in majority. We know that majority government provides the results for Tasmanians, but importantly it needs to be stable government and that's not what we've had from the Liberals in the last ten years. I mean people started, they voted for Will Hodgman, they ended up with Peter Gutwein, they then voted for Peter Gutwein, they ended up with Jeremy Rockliff. When they vote for Jeremy Rockliff they have no idea who they're going to get as Premier. And I know that many Tasmanians are concerned that that could change and they could end up with Michael Ferguson or Eric Abetz. I think Tasmanians are over the changing premierships. They're over, of course, the number of Ministers that have been removed from the positions because they haven't been doing a good enough job for Tasmanians and I think they want stable majority government, and only Rebecca White and Labor can deliver that.
DORAN:
You've pointed to the cost of living pressures that are at play right across the country, but obviously in your home state of Tasmania they have come to the fore in this election campaign. Central to that is housing, an area that you have responsibility for at a federal level. Tasmanian Labor's policy to expand the plan to help people get into the housing market with little or no deposit. There are some echoes there of the federal government's policy. Would that be something that you would agree with?
COLLINS:
What we know is shared equity schemes get more people into home ownership sooner, and that's what we want to do both at a state Labor government and a federal Labor government. At the federal level, of course, we've introduced our legislation for our Help to Buy shared equity scheme. We want to get around 40,000 Australians into home ownership with Help to Buy. But what we also know, of course is that the Liberals and the Greens are voting against it. They voted against it in the House of Representatives and it will come before the Senate soon.
DORAN:
I know you're among the many thousands of Tasmanians very excited about the prospect of getting a new AFL team in the coming years. You're wearing your Tasmanian green there, you've already signed up for a foundation membership yourself. But Rebecca White has said that if she is elected she's going to renegotiate the deal for this new stadium at Macquarie Point. Does that risk jeopardising the entry of this AFL team, the Tasmanian Devils, into the competition and risk the future of that much promise and highly anticipated side?
COLLINS:
I think what we've seen in Tasmania over the last week since the announcement of the Tassie Devils AFL team is Tasmanians uniting behind an AFL team that we have wanted for a very long time. Labor is united in supporting an AFL team. We're absolutely behind the Tassie Devils, as I think all Tasmanians are. Tasmanians have waited a very long time for the opportunity to join the AFL and the fact that we've now got over 120,000 Tasmanians as foundation members will make it one of the largest AFL memberships across the country. I mean, it's quite extraordinary that so many Tasmanians are supportive of it. We've also, of course, made no secret of the fact that we want to invest in Macquarie Point in Hobart. We want to see revitalisation of that site and that includes a stadium. We want to work with Rebecca White about delivering an AFL team for Tasmania.
DORAN:
If it is renegotiated, as Rebecca White is discussing there, could this be a situation where the federal government's even more on the hook for some of the capital outlay for this project? We know that the Prime Minister pledged $240 million of federal funds for this project a couple of months ago.
COLLINS:
Look, we've got an agreement with the state government that we have capped our contribution of $240 million and Rebecca White and her team have quite rightly focused on the priorities of Tasmanians in terms of cost of living, health and housing. What we want to do is work with them to deliver all of those things, plus an AFL team for Tasmania. And I know that Rebecca and her team are very supportive of an AFL team for Tasmania and we're all behind the Tassie devils.
DORAN:
Minister, before we let you go, just one last question in your portfolio area. We saw some of the data released yesterday about Australia's population growth that is considerable because of a surge in migration numbers. The federal opposition has been very keen to argue that that will put further stress on an already strained housing market. They have a point, don't they?
COLLINS:
Well, what we know, of course is that the opposition, the Liberals and the Nationals have come into the Parliament and they've repeatedly voted against more housing for Australians. Every time we put up legislation to improve housing and to do more for housing, they vote against it. That's what we know. We also know of course that we got left a mess in migration and in housing and we're busy cleaning up the mess. We're focused on supply of housing. We've now added more than $25 billion in investments into housing over the next decade. That is on top of the investments that were already there. This is new investments of $25 billion. This is on top of what states and territories are doing. What we know is we need to work with the other tiers of government, particularly state and territory governments, to turn around housing supply in this country. And that is what we are focused on, working with other tiers of government, working with the industry and with the sector so that we can have more homes for Australians, particularly those Australians that need the most. And it was like when I met with M‑R today, she was just terrific. And it shows what social housing can do for people. She's, for the first time in a long time, got a stable roof over her head and it's turning her life around. That's what this should be about. It should be about people and not scaremongering. We need to turn around housing supply in this country, and we're absolutely focused on it.
DORAN:
Regardless of how meritorious those policies are, they are going to deliver housing down the track. There is an immediate demand and an immediate crisis facing many across the country. Is it problematic allowing high levels of migration when that situation is present in our community?
COLLINS:
Well, we've got over 227,000 dwellings under construction at the moment, according to the latest ABS data. What I did today was I opened up 434 new dwellings. These are dwellings, half social, half affordable, rentals for Australians that need them most. We want to get on and do more of that. We've provided money to state and territory governments so that they can do the same. We want to work with them, and our investments are slowly turning this around. Today, of course, is also the closing of the first round of the Housing Australia Future Fund, something the Liberals and the Nationals voted against and something the Greens delayed for more than six months. We want to get on and we want to build the homes. And frankly, the Liberal and the National party and even the Greens need to get out of the way, and they should be supporting us to get more homes on the ground for Australians.
DORAN:
Julie Collins, thanks for your time this Friday.
COLLINS:
Thanks very much, Matt, and to your viewers.