Sharri Markson:
…Federal Minister, Michael Sukkar, joins me live now. Minister, thank you for your company tonight.
Minister Sukkar:
Hi Sharri.
Sharri Markson:
Do you think that there should be a review into the charitable status of Animals Australia?
Minister Sukkar:
Well, Sharri, good to be with you. Clearly if these allegations are true then of course the charitable status of Animals Australia would need to be reviewed. This is the province of the Australian Charites and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) not the Government. The ACNC is tasked with the obligation to review these things. They take them very seriously, but I must say, Sharri, I’m yet to see allegations as distressing as this and indeed if the allegations are true that, let’s call them secret payments, were made that then encouraged and solicited animal cruelty, then I think that would be the most egregious circumstance that anyone could find. From the Government’s perspective, Australian taxpayers provide charitable status to entities, they provide those tax concessions for organisations to do good works, to do charitable works, but indeed if these allegations are true, that these charitable donations provided by Australians went to make secret payment that then led to animals being treated in a cruel fashion, I think that Australians would be appalled. So, no doubt the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission will take these allegations seriously and look very closely at them in determining whether Animals Australia should continue to be a charity.
Sharri Markson:
Michael, what do you think of the practice of making these secret payments – as you just described them – to people who are paid nowhere near that much money on a daily or monthly basis, and paying them to capture footage of cruelty to animals? That could easily become motivation to turn off the ship ventilation as one of those deck hands said in an email that I obtained.
Minister Sukkar:
Well clearly that is the allegation here, Sharri, and this is why secret payments are unhealthy because if these secret payments have been made, if Animals Australia concedes that these secret payments were made, and now we’ve got the recipients of those payments claiming that in order to receive them, they treated animals in an appalling fashion, then it’s hard to imagine how these sorts of payments could lead to a worse outcome. Let’s be frank – any Australian who donates to Animals Australia is donating to them for the very purpose of reducing and eliminating animal cruelty. They would be appalled if they were to find out – again, if these allegations are true – that their money was used not to prevent animal cruelty but, in the end, to solicit animal cruelty. Extraordinarily serious allegations here, Sharri, and again the independent ACNC is tasked with the job of reviewing these sorts of matters but I have no doubt that they take these sorts of matters very seriously and will do so in this case.
Sharri Markson:
Michal, I am going to turn to another topic but I will follow up with you on that matter because we are all against cruelty to animals and, as you say, if these donations ended up soliciting and encouraging that cruelty then it’s really devastating.
I want to turn to your role as housing minister. It’s quite extraordinary, property prices have just been booming amid the Covid pandemic even when we were in a technical recession. They rose 2.6 per cent last month, that’s the strongest rise in 33 years. They’re now up a record level, 7 per cent since last September. Are you concerned about the RBA’s warning on Friday that the financial system could be rocked if there’s a debt blowout or if interest rates rise and people can no longer meet their repayments on the new properties they’ve bought?
Minister Sukkar:
Sharri, it’s a very good question. I think back to about 12 months ago today when I was answering questions similar to what you’re asking except they were the exact opposite. We had economists at major banks suggesting that we could see 30 per cent reductions in the value of house prices. We saw the Master Builders Association and the Housing Industry Association say that up to half a million jobs in the residential construction industry were at risk. So 12 months later if we fast forward, we’ve obviously put in place huge stimulus to support the economy through JobKeeper, through HomeBuilder – HomeBuilder has protected those 1 million jobs in the residential construction industry – and then we look at the state of the housing market today, surprisingly to some of your viewers, Sharri, we’ve actually got first homebuyers at their highest levels for nearly 15 years. If you look at the Housing Industry Association affordability indexes which look at house prices, they look at wages, they look at serviceability costs with, most notably, interest rates. On average we’re looking at affordability being at 20 year highs which is why first homebuyers are at such high levels and why owner-occupiers are nearly three quarters of the market. Owner-occupiers are people purchasing a home for themselves, are in an absolutely dominate position. Part of that reason, Sharri, to just finish my long answer is that over $220 billion has been saved by business and households during the pandemic obviously as a result of the measures put in by the Government. A lot of that $220 billion is now finding its way into people investing in housing, again one of the reasons why first homebuyers are at such a high level. So there’s multifaceted reasons for why the housing market is where it’s at but from our perspective we’re very pleased that confidence levels and the strength of the economy and the unemployment rate are leading to a strong housing market where first homebuyers are at 15 year highs, where owner-occupiers are in a very dominant position in the housing market. But of course, Sharri, we keep a very close eye on these things and in the end, we want as many Australians as is possible to be able to purchase their first home if that’s what they aspire to do.
Sharri Markson:
You’re working very closely with Josh Frydenberg on the Federal Budget, due to be handed down soon. How will this vaccine setback impact on our economic recovery?
Minister Sukkar:
Well Sharri we’ve been very clear in last year’s Budget in October and in MYEFO that there were going to be difficulties this year in the economic recovery. Now thankfully our economic recovery has exceeded all expectations, it’s certainly exceeded the budget parameters that were put in place just as recently as MYEFO but we’ve always been very conservative this year in the way in which, shall we say, the tail of Covid-19 would continue to impact particular industries acutely but the economy more broadly. I still think that it is fair to say that the economy has recovered more quickly than certainly we had budgeted for as recently as MYEFO. But we haven’t finalised all of our final forecasts, we haven’t finalised what we see as the final economic position into next year’s budget. We’re conducting that work at the moment. If you look at the rollout of the vaccine, we’ve got over 1 million Australians vaccinated now. The experience from Israel, from the UK, from other jurisdictions is that exponentially increases once you get that initial rollout in place and you get the architecture in place and you get the processes in place in what is a novel vaccine particularly with storage and supply chain issues, you do see an exponential increase. So we’re still hopeful of that but your viewers and yourself, Sharri, are well aware of the global issues being faced with vaccines but I think that it’s fair to say that our economy is certainly exceeding our conservative expectations in last year’s budget and in MYEFO and I don’t think that that has demonstrably changed.
Sharri Markson:
It’s great to catch up with you, Michael, and I look forward to having you on the program again soon.
Minister Sukkar:
Thanks so much, Sharri.