28 March 2022

Interview with Peter Stefanovic, AM Agenda, Sky News

Note

Topics: Home Guarantee Scheme expansion, cost-of-living relief, fuel excise. 

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Tens of thousands of young Australians will be helped into the property market in a major expansion of the New Home Guarantee scheme as part of the Coalition’s pre‑election promise. Joining us live now is the Minister for Housing, Michael Sukkar. Minister, thanks for your time this morning. As we’ve just seen there, the Home Guarantee Scheme is to be expanded – up to 50,000 now is that key marker but who qualifies and who gets prioritised?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

Well, it’s a major expansion of an already very successful program, Pete. We’ve seen more than 60,000 Australians use the Home Guarantee Schemes to get into a new home and for your viewers, in essence it enables people to purchase a new home with a deposit of 5 per cent because banks are increasingly requiring people to save a 20 per cent deposit, we know the deposit is the biggest hurdle. So, that’s really what has underpinned the success of the scheme to date and that’s what ultimately justifies this major expansion to 50,000 places. 35,000 places available for first homebuyers, 5,000 places available for single parents under the Family Home Guarantee and 10,000 places put aside for those who purchase or build a new home in a regional area. So, 50,000 places per annum in total. It will be the same as how the scheme has operated for the last three years, Pete, to answer your question. It’s first in best dressed but again we’ve got 5,000 places each year set aside for single parents, the Family Home Guarantee which we announced in last year’s budget – very successful – and 10,000 places a year for those who build or purchase a home in a regional area and off course 35,000 places every single year available to first home buyers – wherever they may be, in the cities or the regions – to purchase a new home with a 5 per cent deposit.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Just backing it up, on that last scheme, do you have the numbers on how many people couldn’t make the repayments that you had to bail out?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

Well to date, Pete, and I think we have to touch wood on this, to date we’ve seen no defaults. So, we’ve seen absolutely no defaults under this scheme in the first three years – we’re into our third year now. So, when I say it’s been an extraordinarily successful scheme not only do I mean it’s helped 60,000 people get into a home when they wouldn’t otherwise have got into a home but it also, we’re seeing – and the evidence is quite clear – that they are very committed buyers, and no one has defaulted to date. It’s been a scheme that we’ve calibrated very carefully, we put a lot of thought into it, we obviously took it to the last election. Labor criticised it quite heavily at the time, but it’s proven to be such a success, we’ve really expanded it in virtually every budget since then, but this is a major expansion – 50,000 places each and every year.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Are you playing catch up here after the Labor party beat you to the punch on Friday with their own announcement on this?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

Well, no, I mean Labor’s falling over themselves on the eve of an election to associate themselves with a Morrison government program. This is a program we took to the last election, it’s a program we’ve been running for three years now as I said. I’m not sure how that could be playing catch up. It’s our program, our scheme. We’re expanding it because it’s been so successful and we’re so proud of it.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Okay and just one more of this before I go to fuel excise. You’ve had no defaults and that’s fantastic but is it wise now, where conditions are tougher, to ask people to take on more debt? As you’ve got inflation that’s rising, you’ve got several rate rises around the corner, particularly with just a 2 per cent deposit on the single income, is it wise to ask people to take on that debt right now?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

We were very careful when we put this scheme in place, Pete, to make sure that the government is not running the credit assessment here. You still have to get a loan from a bank, you still have to meet all of the credit requirements of that bank. Yes, we guarantee 15 per cent of the loan or 18 per cent in the case of the Family Home Guarantees, so we guarantee that portion, but the bank has to be satisfied that you’re a good credit risk. We’ve seen the proof in the pudding that that has been the case to date and that’s why it justifies such a big expansion.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Cutting the fuel excise. It’s going to save motorists a maximum of $10 for a full tank of fuel being a fifty‑litre tank. Is that your silver bullet?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

Oh look, Pete, the details of the Budget, you will see tomorrow night in the Treasurer’s speech. The Treasurer has made very clear that, in his view, helping address some of the cost‑of‑living pressures being felt by families is important. Yes, the economy is recovering. Yes, unemployment is low. Yes, Australia is leading the pack on the economic recovery post‑COVID, but we still acknowledge that there is pressure being felt by families. He will outline what the Government is proposing with respect to cost‑of‑living relief, but everyone will have to wait until his speech to know the detail.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

But do you have any concerns that service stations, that just gives them a license to jack up the prices?

MINISTER SUKKAR:

Pete, I think the point to make here is that whatever the Government does to ease cost‑of‑living pressures for families, we’ll make sure that those decisions ultimately flow through to the people for whom that relief is targeted. We’ll do whatever we need to make sure that happens, whatever the relief looks like.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Michael Sukkar, the housing minister, thanks for your time as always. We’ll talk to you soon.