Interview with Sally Sara on ABC RN Breakfast

‍Subjects: One Nation, freedom of speech, housing, data centres, National Construction Code, Senate Select Committee on Productivity

E&OE........

Sally Sara

Well, staying with federal politics, Andrew Bragg is the Shadow Minister for Housing, Homelessness, and the Environment, and joins me now. Andrew Bragg, welcome back to Breakfast.

Senator Bragg

Morning, Sally.

Sally Sara

I want to start with a report in the Nine papers today about your Liberal Senate colleague, Alex Antic. He has called One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts a quote, “a clear thinker”. Malcolm Roberts has previously called the United States a terrorist organisation, and praised the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and said he could not rule out that the Bondi terror attack was a false flag operation. Is that clear thinking in your view?

Senator Bragg

Well, I'm not a spokesperson for the other senators, but I'd certainly make the point that I don't think that the Bondi atrocity was a false flag. As someone who lives in Eastern Sydney, it was a horrendous event, and frankly, the community is still recovering from that, and we never want to see that happen in Australia ever again.

Sally Sara

Is Malcolm Roberts a figure in the Federal Parliament that should be praised by one of your Liberal colleagues?

Senator Bragg

Well, I'm not a spokesman for Alex. I mean, he can praise who he wants. I'm not getting into praising or not praising other colleagues. My views on public policy are there to be pulled apart, but I'm not a spokesperson for the others. I mean, I've made my position clear on One Nation in other forums. I don't think that having a government with One Nation would be good for Australia.

Sally Sara

Senator Antic is a close friend of former Liberal and now One Nation leader in South Australia, Cory Bernardi. To your knowledge, is there any push for a Liberal-One Nation merger?

Senator Bragg

No, I haven't heard that one, I'm sorry.

Sally Sara

Alex Antic is hosting an event with the podcaster Sam Bamford, who has raised the idea of a quote, “remigration program”, a concept related to deporting non-white migrants. Is that appropriate for a Liberal politician to engage in?

Senator Bragg

Well, look, I'm not into telling people what podcasts they should or shouldn't do. I think it's really a matter for adults, and it's a matter for the representatives. I mean, they have to stand in front of the people who put them there and say, well, I'd like to be re-elected, and their record will be reflected upon. I mean, that's really a matter for them. I think it's good that people can talk to different people on different platforms. I think that generally aids free speech, and I don't think we should be in a position of trying to stop people from talking to other people.

Sally Sara

Could that, though, push away some Liberal voters, those who strongly disagree with One Nation?

Senator Bragg

Look, I don't know. I mean, I think ultimately people will vote for policies and people they think are providing the leadership the nation needs. And I think in the main, my hope at the next election is people will cast their ballots based on who's going to have the best economic agenda, and have the most authentic and far-sighted leadership.

Sally Sara

Do there need to be common values within the Liberal Party and common responses to One Nation? Or can you have the leader, Angus Taylor, saying we're never going to be in a coalition with One Nation, and other members of the party expressing some support for members of One Nation? Is that tenable?

Senator Bragg

Well, it's a good question, but ultimately the Liberal Party has a tradition of allowing backbenchers to express their own positions. I mean, Alex is a backbencher. He's entitled to his views. I don't agree that having a government with One Nation would be a good idea, and I don't believe that having a government with the Labor Party would be a good idea either. So I think we have to be shooting for majority government. That's really going to be the best way for us to try and arrest the nation's economic decline and to get us back onto a trajectory where we have high productivity, low inflation, more jobs, and more opportunities for Australians.

Sally Sara

You’re listening to Radio National Breakfast. My guest is the Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Andrew Bragg. The Australian newspaper has reported that the Housing Industry of Australia is concerned that housing projects are being displaced by data centre developments, threatening housing supply. What do you think?

Senator Bragg

I just think we have enough land that we don't need to choose between these two things. Ultimately, the government have failed to get houses built, and they may also fail to get data centres built if they have more bureaucracy, that the Prime Minister seems to be promising here. So ultimately, wherever you have a federal edifice like you do with EPBC, you risk having fewer things built, whether they be houses or data centres. And what we're seeing right now is we're not seeing many houses being built, and I suspect we may not see as many data centres built as we need.

Sally Sara

You're Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Productivity, which held hearings yesterday after a number of days earlier this year. When it comes to housing, what was the most striking evidence you heard yesterday?

Senator Bragg

Well, there's a few things. I think firstly the Senate hearings were very clear that there's a massive problem with fraud in the banking system. There's a lot of money disappearing actually because of artificial intelligence and the ability of artificial intelligence to make fraudulent documents, and so there are some proposals there to fix that up. Then in general there is a huge problem with productivity and cost of building housing, which arises from the National Construction Code being such a boondoggle. And then there's also issues around transparency around the EPBC Act and the fact that the Minister Murray Watt doesn't publish the decisions that he makes about housing decisions. So there's a lot we can do to help productivity and fix housing.

Sally Sara

Andrew Bragg, thank you for joining me this morning.

Senator Bragg

Thanks Sally.

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[Ends]