PETER STEFANOVIC:
Let's go back to Canberra now. Joining us live is the Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones. Minister, good morning to you. So, our top political story of the day, it's the huge number of migrants that are coming, 650,000 over the next 2 years. As I mentioned earlier, it's a double‑edged sword here. We need the migrants, but where are we going to house them? Over to you.
STEPHEN JONES:
Yeah. Look, big part of this story is international students back to our universities. Overwhelmingly a good story. Another part of it is more people coming here for holidays. And that's a good story as well. And more Australians staying and not leaving, not travelling overseas or not migrating overseas. So, there's some ons and offs in these numbers. And, of course, as we're talking to business, they're continually saying, "we need more skilled workers, we can't find them here can we bring more skilled workers in from overseas?" So, in large part, Pete, this is a demand factor. People wanting to come to Australia to study or holiday or employers saying, "we need workers." But of course, we've got to look at it, we've got to manage it over the long term. More people does mean more pressure on housing and infrastructure and these things that have all got to be balanced out over the long term.
STEFANOVIC:
Right, so do you think you've got the balance right? And just is that right, that $650,000‑dollar, 650,000 figure over the next 2 years?
JONES:
Look, we'll publish the authority of numbers in the Budget, as we always do. So that's just a few months away. But there's no doubt more international students coming back to Australia after they were booted out during the pandemic and more Australians ‑ more people wanting to come to Australia on holidays, which is great news for tourism. So that's a large part of the story.
STEFANOVIC:
Sure.
JONES:
It's not the whole story, but it's a large part.
STEFANOVIC:
No. And the negative side of that story is that, as we all know, we just don't have enough housing. And if you've got more people fighting over less, surely this is just going to drive up prices and rents, is it not?
JONES:
There is no doubt that we have pressure in our housing markets, which is why the government is so focused on getting our Housing Australia Future Fund through the Senate. Our fund, $10 billion to build more houses in Australia, a fund set up in perpetuity to build more houses to add to supply. We've got a big supply problem in this country. We've set up a National Housing Accord. We've got cooperation with states and territories to ‑ right across the board, be putting more effort into housing. Also pleased to see that state governments are starting to take action in relation to rent and rent increases as well. The state governments hold a lot of the levers in this area. We want to work with them, but we also want to do our bit, which is, again, why we're calling on the Senate to pass our historic Housing Australia Future Fund. This is the first time in our nation's history where a $10 billion fund has been set up to build houses in perpetuity. Beggars' belief that people who say they're in favor of building houses are proposing to vote this down.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay, but without that, as things stand, if migrant levels increase by 650,000 over 2 years, will home prices and rents skyrocket?
JONES:
Like I said, Pete, the authority of numbers, the final numbers, will be released in the budget papers in the normal way.
STEFANOVIC:
Sure but any kind of increase, will that just increase prices and rents?
JONES:
In the normal way. There is no doubt that there is pressure in our housing market at the moment. There is also no doubt that we've got employers saying "we can't get workers." Whether it's aged care employers, whether it's hospitality industry workers, that everybody is screaming out saying "we need more workers." And we've been assiduously working through the backlog in the visa process so we can remove some of the blockages in those areas. So this is a finely balanced thing, Pete. We got employers on the one hand saying we need more workers, but we also know that we've got housing issues which is why we're trying to do 2 things at once build more houses and ensure that we can deal with the labor supply issues through immigration, through our massive boost in TAFE and skills training. Trying to do all of these things at once. Not always with the cooperation of the coalition or with the Senate.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay, on the Coalition ‑
JONES:
We need their cooperation to get these problems dealt with.
STEFANOVIC:
On the Coalition, Steven. Susan Ley on the program a short while ago. She applauds the numbers, as a matter of fact, but she's made a claim for more migrants into the regions. So how are you going to force that?
JONES:
Already doing it, Pete. In fact, my colleague Pat Conroy working on the Pacific Island Labor Mobility Agreement. It's working phenomenally well. It's helping Pacific Island nations with foreign source income. It's helping Australian farmers, agricultural workers and service providers to get a supply of labor. We've upscaled it and we think we can do more again, because we think it's a fantastic program, it's a great initiative and it's working. We haven't always had the cooperation of the Coalition on this one either, but it is working. And more programs like that are exactly what we need to get skilled workers into regional Australia.
STEFANOVIC:
Okay, just wrapping up here and back on the housing bill. The Greens are not supporting it because it wants more changes, including a 2‑year rent freeze. Are you open to any more amendments?
JONES:
Yeah, look, the Greens who are calling for this got themselves elected to the wrong parliament. It's state governments that have the levers over rent price controls and it's state governments, or some of them at least, which are acting on this. Pleased to see action in New South Wales and Victoria and some other states as well like to see more action around the country. State governments use the powers that they have that the Commonwealth Government doesn't have to put in place these rent controls. I'd say to the Greens, I'd say to the other parties, if you're in favor of building houses and you want to work in the Commonwealth Government, let's work with the powers that are available to us and let's get behind the Housing Australia Future Fund. The first time in our nation's history, $10 billion is going to be set aside in perpetuity to build more houses, who could be against it?
STEFANOVIC:
Stephen Jones. We'll leave it there. Thank you.