Peter Stefanovic:
Joining me now live from Melbourne is Housing Minister, Michael Sukkar. Minister, good morning, thanks for your time.
Minister Sukkar:
Good morning, Pete.
Peter Stefanovic:
You must be feeling pretty justified about this?
Minister Sukkar:
Well I’m feeling great that the million people who work in the residential construction industry throughout this country have had their jobs supported during what has been one of the most challenging times for the Australian economy – certainly in our lifetimes – but in living memory. Those million Australians, whether they are the tradies on site, the carpenters, the brick layers, all the way to the manufacturing workers who make the bricks and the tile and the glass and the timber workers who make the frames and the trusses, we’re pleased as a Government that we’ve supported their jobs. We’re also very pleased that as part of this program to support those million jobs in the residential construction industry, we’ve helped so many Australians to purchase their first home. We’ve seen, in addition to the success of this program, first home buyers at their highest levels for over a decade. So, it’s a win-win, it’s supporting jobs, its helping people get into their new homes and the fact that the scheme has ended up being so big just means that those benefits have been spread much more far and wide than we originally thought.
Peter Stefanovic:
Well it’s essentially a $2 billion gamble, right, for an $18 billion return? Are you even surprised by that take up?
Minister Sukkar:
I suppose I would say pleasantly surprised. This is a demand-driven program and we always were hoping that it could be as big as possible because new homes that are being built just means new jobs, from pouring the slab all the way up. So, we were always very hopeful that it would be as big as possible. I suppose the calibration of the scheme, the $25,000 which is a really significant bonus for people, the tight time frames that we put in place. I mean the Labor Party criticised the program, the Labor Party didn’t support the program but we really fine-tuned the program to try and make sure we got the maximum number of people to take that really big decision to build a new home in order to support those million jobs. So I am very pleasantly surprised and it is good to see – and I suppose I am parochial as the housing minister – that the economic recovery that Australia will see this year is largely going to be driven by our tradies in our construction industry.
Peter Stefanovic:
Will the program be extended?
Minister Sukkar:
Well we extended the program as you know, Pete, before Christmas, to the 31st of March. $15,000 grant for contracts between 1st of January to 31st of March. I would encourage all Australians who are thinking about taking up the program and taking that big decision to build a new home to do so. We don’t have any intention to extend the scheme further so make that decision now and, as I said, it is not only beneficial for those individuals, it supports so many jobs in the economy.
Peter Stefanovic:
I suppose there could be an unintended consequence here, right, and check me if I’m wrong? But cheap money does lead to an overhang and over supply which may well bring about its own risks? Is that something you might be concerned about?
Minister Sukkar:
Well no, one of the things we’ve seen, again that we suspected but we’ve seen really come through in the data is that there really was a large cohort of Australians – first home buyers in particular – who were struggling to get that deposit together. We’ve obviously put in place the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme which supports first home buyers to purchase a property with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent. This $25,000 grant was the additional kicker for those people to make that final decision to purchase their first new home, in this case, under the HomeBuilder program and that cohort was quite large. So you had a whole host of Australians, in a sense sitting on the side lines, but the HomeBuilder program has now enabled them to enter the market. So, we think that’s a very sustainable pool of people to fuel that demand in the housing market, and in the end, Pete, the only way you avoid issues in the housing market is to make sure that you maintain supply. Whenever we have issues in the housing market it’s because we’ve had constrained supply. One of the big concerns we had with the pandemic when it hit and as the Master Builders Association said, they were going to hit a valley of death of very few new homes. Now that would have had devastating consequences. So, the fact that we’ve been able to maintain the supply of new housing, I think means we’re going to have a much more sustainable housing market into the medium and long term future.
Peter Stefanovic:
Given that program has done so well given there’s been such a huge uptake, and now given that money is so cheap, why not do more for public housing?
Minister Sukkar:
Well, Pete, we do a significant amount for social and public housing. In fact we each year, as a Commonwealth, deliver over $8 billion in programs to support public and social housing, which is, I think we all accept, the predominant responsibility of state and territory governments, but we do support them. In the Budget we allocated an additional $1 billion to the National Housing Financing Investment Corporation which supports social and affordable housing projects throughout the country. Indeed, I was in New South Wales just before Christmas on a construction milestone of a really significant project in Redfern for social and affordable housing. So, we make ongoing huge investments, Pete. In recent years we’ve upped those investments. So we have maintained the support for first home buyers, we’ve maintained the support for the residential construction industry as well as supporting states and territories to deliver their social and affordable housing and we will continue to do so. We as a government absolutely believe that everybody along the housing spectrum, deserves to have safe and secure housing and we are very proud of that.
Peter Stefanovic:
Minister, Anthony Albanese is going to make a speech today and in that speech, he is going to accuse the Prime Minister of cosying-up to Donald Trump. What is the Governments response to that?
Minister Sukkar:
I’ve read some reports this morning indicating what the Leader of the Opposition might say. I’d be surprised if he ventures too far into this topic because he has very little credibility on these matters. It was just a few weeks ago that people in the Labor Party were utterly mortified at his suggestions that somehow the Prime Minister should intervene post-election in a way that even Labor people were completely embarrassed by. So, the Leader of the Opposition has got no credibility on these matters. The wonderful thing about the Australia-US alliance, the most important relationship that we have, is that it transcends politics. Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Labor, we have an extraordinarily strong relationship regardless of the political parties in government at the respective time or the President of the day and that will continue, we will continue to have an extraordinarily strong and prosperous relationship with the United States, a very strong and excellent relationship with the Biden Administration, I am absolutely certain of that. The sort of carping from the sidelines that we saw from the Leader of the Opposition a few weeks ago, again, I’d be shocked if he goes back to that well, but we will see today and if he does, I think that might show that he hasn’t learnt his lesson.
Peter Stefanovic:
Well it looks as though he is going back to that. Some of the quotes that have been printed this morning, Minister. “The alliance must be more than an extended celebration of mateship and a series of photo opportunities and Scott Morrison has failed to build connections with Democrats”. So, they are just some parts of what he is expected to say today.
Minister Sukkar:
Well, again, I think that will highlight again that the Leader of the Opposition trying to politicize the relationship between the Australia and US Governments and the President, is quite extraordinary actually. . One of the things we’ve had in Australian politics for a very long time is a bipartisan acceptance that we are all invested in the relationship and that we all work very hard to continue that alliance in the strongest possible fashion. Anthony Albanese’s predecessor certainly I don’t think made these huge errors in judgement. So, we will see what he says today, Pete, but in the end, we have an excellent relationship with the United States. That will continue, it transcends politics, it transcends who’s in the Lodge or who’s in the White House at any given time, but not withstanding that, I think we’ll have a phenomenally excellent relationship with the Biden Administration.
Peter Stefanovic:
Housing Minister, Michael Sukkar, always appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Minister Sukkar:
Good on you, Pete. Thanks.