Doorstop Interview 22 May 2026

22 May 2026  

Subjects: Housing Supply, Federal Budget, Taxation, National Security, Migration

E&OE.........

Simon Croft  

Good afternoon and welcome here to the Clarendon Homes in West Pymble. I'm here and joined by Senator Andrew Bragg, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness. We know right now in the country we need to be building a quarter of a million homes year on year, every year - but we're only currently delivering 170,000 homes. We just had the federal Budget handed down, and whilst there were some green shoots - in terms of funding for enabling infrastructure, and some small measures towards addressing red tape, overall what we saw from the Budget was giving with one hand and taking with the left hand. The taxation changes will no doubt have a massive impact on the housing industry, on housing supply. The Government's already said, through Treasury modelling, that the changes to negative gearing and Capital Gains Tax will reduce supply by over 35,000 homes over the next 10 years. We know we need to be doing everything to be doubling supply, so any measures that are going to take away from supply is going to significantly impact industry. We also know that industry is drowning in red tape. Over the last couple of days I've been around talking to builders and manufacturers and suppliers. And the growing red, green and white tape that is impacting builders is meaning they're not being able to get on site and deliver homes and just being swamped by red tape and regulation. I'll now hand over to Senator Andrew Bragg, who's been pushing one of the measures that is certainly trying to address this significant housing supply issue and bring home ownership back as not a dream but as a reality for all Australians. Over to you, Senator Bragg.

Senator Bragg

Thanks Simon. Look, it's great to be here with the Housing Industry Association and Simon Croft, who's the Director of Policy there. The HIA have been fantastic to work with over the years now that I've been working in the Housing portfolio, and it's a pleasure to be here at Clarendon Homes in West Pymble. As the HIA themselves have said, this is a very bad Budget for housing. I mean, the fact that the Government is now having a deliberate design feature to have fewer houses, shows that they actually want to push up prices for younger Australians. The Budget papers say that there will be 35,000 fewer houses as a result of the new taxes. So, the last thing that we need in Australia is more taxes, because more taxes means fewer houses. Now, the Government have let 1.4 million people into the country, but they've only built 600,000 houses. So, we need to be building about a quarter of a million houses each and every year. The fact that the Budget says in black ink that there will be 35,000 fewer houses, shows that the Government has lost its mind. This is the last thing that we need in this country.

So, it's been very interesting to see Paul Keating come out of the woodwork to defend Jim Chalmers and Mr Albanese and their tax changes. Now, what Mr Keating didn't say is that this giant new 30% tax on everything is actually not subject to superannuation funds, his babies. You'll pay 30% on anything; startups, small business, shares, ETFs, crypto. It's a new tax on everything, unless you're a super fund. If you're a super fund, you'll only pay 10%. So, what this does is it sets up super funds as being able to buy houses and for super funds to be able to be the corporate landlords in Australia. So, the Government is trying to chase individuals away from owning houses and building wealth, and they want to bring in their mates in the super funds to become corporate landlords in Australia.

But overall, I just can't believe that we're living in a country where the Government have a deliberate design feature to have 35,000 fewer houses. And when you combine it with the 5% deposits, which is pump priming prices at the bottom end, and their crazy migration policies, the Government actually want to have higher prices for young people. And so, I think it's very jarring for young people to hear the Housing Minister Clare O'Neil say that she doesn't care that house prices are high. She doesn't agree with young people that house prices are too high. Well, the Liberal Party thinks that house prices are too high for younger people, and that's why we have a suite of measures to improve housing supply, because we must build our way out of this housing crisis. And with Labor's Migration Program, their 5% deposits and now their tax policy, there's going to be fewer houses and higher prices.

Journalist  

Senator, I've got a question if that's alright. Are you concerned about reports today that ASIO funding for counter-terrorism has dropped to pre-9/11 levels?

Senator Bragg  

Look, nothing would surprise me with this Government and their failure on national security. This is a government that has allowed people into our country that hate Australia, people that hate the West. And the fact that the security agencies have not been given the required funding they need, doesn't surprise me. I mean, this is the sort of thing that the Bondi Royal Commission should be able to get into. This is another example of the Prime Minister not having the right moral fibre. I mean, this guy fought against the idea of having a Royal Commission into the worst massacre that we've had in recent years. Australia's first ever religious massacre. And the Prime Minister's instinct was to play politics, not to actually call this royal commission. I look forward to seeing what the Bondi Royal Commission has to say.

Journalist In relation to Senator Price's comments about immigration, do your colleagues need to be more careful in how they respond to comments around migration? How do you think it's landing with more moderate Liberal voters?

Senator Bragg I think our leader Angus Taylor has been very clear that we are a great migrant nation, and Mr Taylor has himself talked about that, growing up in Cooma where there were an enormous amount of new Australians coming in after the Second World War and the contribution that they made to this country. And so, all my colleagues support having a strong Migration Program, but we want to have a Migration Program which is in the nation's interest. And I think Australia should be run more like a business. We should be looking to bring in people that we need. According to the Housing Industry Association research, we need 80,000 more tradies, and last year we only had 4,000 come in on visas. So, we should be more strategic, we should be looking to run the country like a business, and we should be bringing in people who can help us build houses.

Journalist Thank you, Senator.

Senator Bragg Great, thank you very much.

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