Interview with Chris Kenny on Sky News

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Subjects: Housing crisis, ISIS fighters

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

Chris Kenny

Let's go to the Shadow Housing Minister, Senator Bragg. Thanks for joining us, Senator. Look, there will be other factors at play here, cyclical factors of course, but of course this was always going to push rents up.

Senator Bragg

Well, the two guarantees were that you were going to have fewer homes, and you were going to have higher rents as a result of higher taxes. And that is what we are seeing. We're seeing in the ABS data yesterday, fewer houses, despite a massive investment from the government, and we're already seeing rent hikes across the board.

Chris Kenny

And this supposedly, the argument from the government is not to boost its coffers, they argue that their policies are aimed at helping people into the housing market. Well, how do you help people in with fewer homes and higher rents?

Senator Bragg

I think it's one of the best examples of the government thinking that most people are stupid, and that their paternalistic way is the way to go. I also think that they did this because they thought it was going to be popular in some quarters. But unfortunately the orthodoxy of economics hasn't been suspended and now we are seeing fewer houses, we are seeing higher rents, and frankly this housing crisis, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Chris Kenny

Yeah, I fear that's the case. Now the Sydney rental market we've focused on here, is this going to happen around the country? And what do you think the impact will be? I mean obviously these figures were over a quarter to the end of June, so the budget would have only just started to move, you know, have an influence on all that. Is the influence of these changes actually going to increase now?

Senator Bragg

I think so. I think Melbourne and Sydney are different cases because that's where most migrants come to as well. And the migration numbers are still very high. And as I said, the supply numbers of housing is very low in relative terms. So they've reduced housing supply by 30,000 each year since they've been in government on average. So you've got more people than ever, and you've got fewer houses than ever on a relative basis. So I think the affordability and the rents are going to be worse.

Chris Kenny

Now, look, Labor of course did this before, back in the Hawke/Keating government. They got rid of negative gearing. It lasted about a year or so, rents went up, housing became less affordable, and they scrapped those changes. I can't believe they've gone back to that same policy sort of  40 or 50 years later. But is there a possibility this could get so bad that Labor are going to have to do it again, for a second time, repeal their changes to negative gearing?

Senator Bragg

Well they've already had to change the budget four times since it was announced, and the changes they made at the behest of the Greens to self-managed super funds now mean that the self-managed super funds can't borrow to invest in off-the-plan developments. So they're literally stopping people and funds from creating new houses that people could live in. So I think they'll have to revise that, they have to go back and fix this widow’s tax issue. I'd suggest they've already had three goes at this Budget, they'll have to have a fourth and a fifth.

Chris Kenny

Yeah, what a mess, what a mess. Let me get you on something outside your portfolio. You mentioned immigration. We know what's happened with the ISIS brides. There's this story now that a dozen or more Australian ISIS fighters who have been held imprisoned in Iraq are about to be freed and might try and find their way back to Australia. Now Tony Burke says his government, the Albanese Labor government, will not lift a finger to help these ISIS fighters get back to Australia. But that's what he said about the ISIS brides, and they still got back here.

Senator Bragg

Well, I think it's an unreasonable burden for the Australian people to bear, that they have to live next door to these people or near these people. The government should be doing everything they can to exclude them. That should be their starting point. Their starting point shouldn't be we're not going to not help them, they should be trying to block them from coming back in.

Chris Kenny

Yeah, I think most of the country would agree with you. Senator, thanks for joining us. Senator Bragg there, Liberal Senator for New South Wales and Shadow Housing Minister.

[Ends]