Radio Interview – ABC Radio Sydney Breakfast
JAMES VALENTINE, HOST: Anthony Albanese, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you, James.
VALENTINE: Yeah, lots to think about and talking about with the Parliament, but also a sad day as we think about the crew from Holsworthy that, the search would have resumed this morning for Captain Daniel Lyon, Corporate Alexander Naggs, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent and Warrant Officer Joseph Laycock.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed, it is a reminder of the service that our whole nation is given by those who wear our uniform, and that each and every day is one which carries some risks. So our thoughts today remain very much focused on the families, the friends, but also the colleagues as well who will be going through a difficult time.
VALENTINE: Yeah, and they’re based in Holsworthy, so these are families that live in Sydney.
PRIME MINISTER: They are, in terms of they provide a service for aviation, for our army base there at Holsworthy. This Exercise Talisman Sabre involves some 30,000 people from thirteen countries. It is an important exercise, it’s the most significant one that Australia engages in on our shores. And the news on Friday night was incredibly tragic. And the search, of course, is important and will be continued, it will be conducted today. And just our thoughts with the families. But it is a reminder as well that I think all servicemen and women, as well as veterans, will be going through a difficult time.
VALENTINE: Yeah. Prime Minister, in this session you’ll be bringing your Housing Australia Future Fund back into the Parliament. This is an offer of $10 billion to be secured and then deliver $500 million a year for social and affordable housing. Unchanged? No negotiating points with the Greens to get it through?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ve negotiated through with the crossbenchers. We’ve made sure that there’s a floor of at least $500 million available. We’ve made sure that it will be delivered not just in the major cities, but across the states and territories, as well as in the regions. This is something that I put at the centrepiece of my Budget Reply two years before the election. And we have a clear mandate for it, housing groups, including whether it’s the Master Builders Association, or the Housing Industry Association, or groups such as Shelter, and those who look after community housing and the homeless are all calling for this. It’s just extraordinary that it’s been blocked. The Greens don’t say that it’s bad policy, they just say we want more, therefore we’ll have nothing.
VALENTINE: But the more they want, for example, is a national effort on rent and rent freezing, and you know, the rapid rising in rents. Why not a National Cabinet? Why not, you know, get the states together and see if you can come up with a national policy? Would you offer that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we do have a National Cabinet, we are having measures to get greater renters rights, it is what we’ve agreed on, but we don’t have an abolition of the states and territories. What they’re asking for at the national level is for me to negotiate on behalf of eight states and territories, and that’s just, quite frankly, absurd.
VALENTINE: But are they saying, but if you offered, let’s come together, they’re seeking say a billion dollars to incentivise the states and territories to do it. That’s only another billion on top of your 10, bring the states together, have the conversation, maybe come up with something that satisfies them.
PRIME MINISTER: We just put $2 billion additional funding into social housing in June for the states and territories – $2 billion, not one. And that will result in increased building of social and community housing. But we were with the community housing provider just on Friday, they have three and a half thousand homes ready to be built, that had their DAs approved, and they want to get on with it. And every day of delay is a day in which there is less social housing. You can’t say you’re in favour of it, and then vote against it. And say that unless we from Canberra control every state and territory government and exactly what they will do, and they do exactly the same, even though states and territories, of course, will quite often have different circumstances and will come up with different policy responses. This is opposition for its own sake, it is purity that is getting in the way of a practical change that they say is good policy. And I find it just extraordinary.
VALENTINE: Alright, so we know negotiating point is it’s not going to pass it and then it pushes it into October, and this is this double dissolution trigger that people are talking about. Do you want that trigger?
PRIME MINISTER: I want this legislation to be passed. I want more housing to be built. That’s what my focus is.
VALENTINE: But it’s not going to pass, is it? I mean, we’ve established it’s not going to pass if you don’t negotiate with the Greens?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’ll wait and see. They say it’s good policy, they should vote for it.
VALENTINE: But then if they don’t, do you want the double dissolution trigger? Is that handy for you to have?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’d rather not have it. I’d rather have this policy passed. But of course, a double dissolution trigger, what that does is it doesn’t necessarily provide for an early election, it could go into 2025. But what it does is mean that can be a focus, and then you have a joint sitting after a double dissolution election is held. But I just want this legislation to be passed. This is reminiscent of, and their spokesperson put this in writing in an opinion piece in a magazine, essentially saying that if this is just waved through and happens, we won’t be able to continue to doorknock and campaign on it. Well I don’t want to play politics with this. I want to get this done. We have a mandate for it. And the Senate should pass it.
VALENTINE: It’ll push it into October. Are you worried about the timing there? You’ll then have discussion around this, discussion around double dissolution, at the very time you’d want focus on the on the Voice referendum.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there certainly won’t be an election in October.
VALENTINE: But there’ll be discussion of this. Because it’ll be in the October session there’ll be discussion around the potential for an election. That’s going to muddy the waters around the Voice, isn’t it?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll tell you what there’s focus on in today, next week, next month, and I’m sure it’ll still be there in October, is on the need to get more housing supply in this country. That is one of the issues that people are focused on. The Voice is important and the referendum, but we’re also dealing with cost of living pressures, we’re also dealing with pressures in the housing market. And we’re determined to continue to govern across those issues as a priority each and every day.
VALENTINE: Chris Minns was on with the ABC Radio Sydney with Sarah McDonald last week, and they were talking about the Metro West. This has now recently, it’s now looking at a $29 billion project. And well he had this to say.
CHRIS MINNS: We’re expected to take the largest number of inbound immigrants as a result of the Commonwealth Government’s decision to increase net immigration over the next 24 months, and we do need help from the deeper pocketed Commonwealth Government to provide that infrastructure and those services.
VALENTINE: Have you heard from the Premier?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I haven’t had a discussion with the Premier in recent days, but we do talk all of the time. And like every other Premier and every Chief Minister, there is always ask for more resources from the Commonwealth. But we are currently undertaking a review of infrastructure, we’ll stick to the commitments, of course, that we gave at the election campaign, but we want to make sure that we get the money in the right projects at the right time.
VALENTINE: Would you say yes to the Metro West? Is that a crucial, it’s going to deliver thousands of potential housing into, along that corridor, is that the sort of thing that the Commonwealth should be interested in?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, had the Coalition not been elected in New South Wales and federally, when they scrapped the Parramatta to Epping rail link where there was $2.1 billion that the state government said no to in New South Wales, then what you would have had was take pressure off that Western line because that was the very design of it to get people –
VALENTINE: But that was then. Now we’re in now. We’re in now with this Metro West, and this Premier and you as Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this Prime Minister will make infrastructure commitments based upon proper assessments, not based upon a radio interview, James. We will give proper assessments, proper advice, of all infrastructure projects. That’s one of the things that we’re going through at the moment.
VALENTINE: What else are you focusing on in session to come?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’ll be a substantial amount of legislation. We focused, of course, on the cost of living, we’re rolling out the commitments that we made – cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, will be a focus as well, with people being allowed to have a 60 day script rather than 30 day, literally to cut the costs in half – that will be a focus. Continuing to focus on the economy, how do we take pressure off cost of living without putting pressure on inflation? And we had some reasonably positive figures last week with inflation appearing to have peaked at the end of last year, which is what we were hoping for. But us putting in place those measures that have ensured that we’ve been able to do that. We understand that people are doing it tough. We want to make a difference. But we also want to make a difference in a way that improves the long-term issues facing families, and one of those, of course, is cheaper child care.
VALENTINE: Alright. Prime Minister, thanks so much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much James.