Chris Smith:
Michael Sukkar is the Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer, he’s on the line right now. Happy new year to you, Minister.
Minister Sukkar:
Happy New Year, Chris. Great to be with, thanks for having me.
Chris Smith:
These new figures, they’re extremely promising. Aussies are paying back their mortgage faster now than before COVID times. Is that purely because we tended to bunker down and protect ourselves in times of crisis?
Minister Sukkar:
Look, Chris I think that’s part of the story, no doubt. These figures are, in difficult times, extraordinarily encouraging. It means that, as you said at the outset, people are four years ahead on their mortgage repayments on average. There’s a whole lot of firepower sitting in mortgage accounts and in other accounts. More than $220 billion is sitting there and is available to Australians. I think it’s natural that people have saved and have bunkered down – as you say – in difficult times. But it also shows that the economic support provided throughout the pandemic, the support we provided to keep people in jobs, to keep the economy going, meant that whilst people I suspect bunkered down for difficult times, they were able to continue in their job and continue saving. It augurs well for the future. The only thing that will hold that back is confidence and the confidence to be able to spend that in the coming months and years. Australia’s economic recovery is leading the world and we’re very hopeful that this sets and provides a great foundation for the future.
Chris Smith:
Explain to our listeners, how does being up to 45 months ahead on your monthly mortgage repayments, benefit the economy?
Minister Sukkar:
Well in essence it means that people now have the ability to spend on discretionary items. As we will see as the economy further opens up as people are able to travel a bit more freely around our country on domestic tourism, but of course on domestic consumption, that fuels our economy. Australia’s economy is highly dependent on domestic consumption and the ability and the firepower that’s now sitting there in people’s savings is a good thing. Now it doesn’t mean, Chris, that there aren’t a whole lot of people that haven’t done it extraordinarily tough during the pandemic. I think that’s the baseline that we understand but this is an encouraging insight into something that’s been happening over the last couple of years and that is people putting together that nest egg, that firepower for the future. Again, I think it will support the economic recovery that is already well and truly on the way.
Chris Smith:
And it’s being helped of course by the fact that we’ve had international borders closed and if you do travel a little bit, all of that money is saved and you’re looking for places to make it work for you.
Minister Sukkar:
Yeah, there’s no doubt that that discretionary spend is finding its way into other areas of the economy or indeed, in this case, into savings. I think if you look at the Australian economy – unemployment at a thirteen‑year low of 4.6 per cent, jobs are nearly six per cent higher than they were pre‑pandemic. If you’ve got that security of a job and you’ve got a government – as we do with the Morrison Government – supporting businesses, supporting small family businesses to continue to employ, to grow, it provides that level of confidence that Australians need I think, coming into 2022 to unlock and unleash those savings that they’ve accumulated over the last couple of years. Or indeed to continue to pay down their mortgages and have a lower interest burden. That’s good news for families too because again, it means less being spent on servicing debt and more being able to be spent on more important things in their lives.
Chris Smith:
All right broadening from a mortgage, we’ve got an economic recovery that just keeps on rebounding, when are these rebounding events going to convert into higher wages and larger growth?
Minister Sukkar:
I think on the growth side, Chris, we have seen, and we are seeing growth accelerate and that obviously makes sense given that we’re making up ground for what was lost during the pandemic. But our economy is now bigger than it was pre‑pandemic which would surprise some people, but I think is a really important point to make. I think we are seeing and are starting to see some encouraging signs on wages, I think. I don’t want to make any grant pronouncements, but the signs are looking good but let’s remember – and Chris you were at the forefront of a lot of these important discussions throughout the pandemic – in March 2020, the idea of being able to hold onto your job was at the forefront of people’s minds. Now we met that test. Australians who were worried about their jobs at that time it was obviously a catastrophic event and a catastrophic economic time. We got through that and I think now can look forward with confidence that given they’ve got the security of those jobs, the strength in the broader economy, that those wage increases will follow. Economic recoveries don’t happen overnight but we’re well and truly on the path.
Chris Smith:
We’ve got a tough fortnight or maybe even a whole month to come from here on in because if you look at what we’re hearing from epidemiologists, they’re saying we’ll hit the heady heights of these high hospital numbers from Omicron, we’ll hit that in about two weeks’ time or maybe three weeks’ time depending on what state you’re referring to. So, we’re going to have this peak of people who, although they’re not locked down, they’re self‑isolating and they’ll isolate because they have to isolate, they’ve just got COVID etc. We’re going to go through a tough time during that period where people aren’t out spending, aren’t out eating and drinking, aren’t stimulating the economy, they’re waiting until this damn thing passes us by.
Minister Sukkar:
Yeah Chris, you’re right. There’s no doubt that six weeks ago, when Omicron emerged, we’ve just seen a further evolution of the pandemic. You quite rightly point out that with the numbers of people isolating who are either immediate or close contracts of someone who has caught COVID‑19 and who have therefore been required to isolate, has also led the Prime Minister thorough the National Cabinet to lead some really important work on making sure we can fill those critical needs within our supply chains and those critical needs within our economy. We’ve seen a couple of states already make announcements that really lead from the work which involved people in distribution and supply chains particularly in supermarkets and food. Now changing the definition of who needs to isolate so those who are household contacts as opposed to a casual contact which we hope will be a sensible middle course to ensuring that supple chains can remain robust, that we can still get all the goods that Australians need on the shelves of Australian supermarkets, even in industries like, as housing minister, in the construction industry. Making sure we’re able to get all of the supplies of materials and other things that go into the construction of new homes and large developments. These things are something that the Prime Minister has focussed very closely on and its pleasing to see a couple of states already come forward and ensure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure our workforce is as least impacted as possible. But your basic point is right, Chris. As case numbers rise, we’ll see a larger number of people being required to isolate and that will have impacts in so many businesses around the economy and the job now is to make sure we limit that as much as we possibly can. Keep things going, keep the momentum going and we’re confident we can achieve that.
Chris Smith:
One last question. Novak Djokovic, the case starts at 10 o’clock this morning. It’s become more complicated by the day. We don’t quite know who to believe and we don’t quite know who’s responsible. Would you like to see him deported or would you like to see him play in the Australian Open?
Minister Sukkar:
I don’t have a personal view on it other than to say I think the Prime Minister struck the right chord when he said we have rules that are just dispassionately applied to everybody and they’re applied to everyone. When you look at our approach to borders during the pandemic it’s been let’s not displace Australians who want to come home so as far as allowing international arrivals provided that doesn’t displace an Australian who wants to return home that’s important. Second, provided that they don’t increase the risk for Australians in spreading or bringing in a COVID‑19 risk. I think these rules, Chris, just have to be dispassionately applied and one rule must apply for everybody and clearly here the Government is applying one rule that applies across the board and that’s the position I think that we have to adopt. As far as a tennis player goes, I have a great deal of admiration for Novak Djokovic. I think he’s obviously an ornament to the game, but rules apply to everybody equally, that’s the way we operate our strict border protection in Australia and that’s how we’ll continue to do so.
Chris Smith:
All right we’ll find out today whether he was operating under differing sets of rules. It’ll be interesting to hear. Thank you, Michael. Much appreciated.
Minister Sukkar:
Good on you, Chris. Take care.