Interview with Jason Matthews on 4BC Drive

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Subjects: Removal of income caps from the Home Guarantee Scheme, Labor’s housing crisis

E&OE………

Jason Matthews

Now, just talking about this new housing scheme that's been introduced today and the Prime Minister has conceded there will be a slight increase in house prices due to his expansion of the First Home Buyer Guarantee Scheme, which allows for deposits of just 5%. Now, we've already seen a slight increase in the market, nationwide of half a percent for September. And it's going to get bigger. So if you're in the housing market, pop the champagne corks tonight. You can afford it.

You can afford it right now. The expanded program removes the income cap for those accessing the First Home Buyer Scheme. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock says government action to address the housing crisis is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on supply in the next two years - because we're not building the bloody things. We need to build. Anyway, hopefully he can calm me down a bit. I'm joined now by Senator Andrew Bragg, the Shadow Housing Minister. Afternoon, Senator.

Senator Bragg

Jason, how are you going?

Jason Matthews

Good. I'm pretty annoyed with this scheme. I think it's a total waste of money and in the meantime, I feel young Australians and, and single mums and single dads who are just trying to buy their little slice of Australia are actually now just going to be priced out of the market and this is going to do nothing?

Senator Bragg

Well this is a crazy idea and the government have had three and a half years and unfortunately they've failed to get the houses built. They've presided over a massive collapse in housing construction, whilst we now have Australia's biggest ever population. And so in papering over the cracks they're giving us this debased Home Guarantee Scheme which is now open to anyone, including potentially the children of billionaires. So it's going to make the problem worse.

Jason Matthews

But it is and at the moment, we all woke up to the news today that, you know, housing prices went up in September, they're going to go up in, in October. There's no supply. And we've got immigrants coming into the country. We need to stop that. We need to get everyone into housing into our country because we just don't have enough. And the real issue, I reckon, is housing supply and the government is just not doing enough to boost this, are they?

Senator Bragg

That's right. So the government inherited a housing system that was building over 200,000 houses a year on average under the Liberals. And now they've crashed that down to 170,000 houses a year on average. And they've spent $60 billion on housing bureaucracy. So they've built housing bureaucracies and not houses. And now we're all paying the price with these rinky-dink schemes like opening up the Home Guarantee Scheme. So, the problem with today's change is you've got a very tight supply side and now you're going to supercharge the demand side, thereby making the problem much worse. So this is really kind of callous stuff and they're holding it out as a solution to people, but I think most of your listeners will find that it's actually not going to do the job.

Jason Matthews

Senator Andrew Bragg, I gave you a brief overview of what my plan would be to fix it. What would you like to see as the Shadow Housing Minister? How do we get people into affordable housing?

Senator Bragg

We've got to get rid of all the Canberra-based bureaucracy. I mean, the idea that Canberra can sort of centrally control a Soviet-style housing system is just crazy. I mean, these guys have no idea what they're doing. So you've got to get the builders, tradies, and developers in and actually make sure the market can supply the houses. You've got to make it more economic to build because a lot of the builders that will be listening to this would say to you, well, I actually can't justify building anymore. I can't make it stack up because they've got the CFMEU or something else happening. Um, and then you've got to make sure that these same people can get access to the skills they need, right? Get the right trades, have the right mix of migration, the right domestic apprentices, all that sort of stuff, and really focus squarely on getting the houses built.

Jason Matthews

And that's right. We, we have - we don't have enough tradies coming through. We don't have enough apprentices. Like, you're right, it's got to start there. It's an education process as well. We got to start encouraging young Australians to leave school and go and get trades instead of going to uni.

Senator Bragg

Well, building is a great sector. I spend a lot of time walking around building sites and there's lots of opportunities and, but ultimately, the government have not put their faith in the private builders or the private trades people. They're relying on bureaucracies to solve the problem and as I said, they inherited a housing system that was giving the country 200,000 houses a year on average. They've crashed that down to 170,000. Meanwhile, they've given Australia our biggest ever population. So that's why this is such a nightmare. And this Home Guarantee Scheme change today really, you know, opening it up to the children of billionaires and other people who don't need government support, really is going to make a bad situation even worse.

Jason Matthews

Andrew, I spoke about it earlier and I have 18-year-old twin girls. I have serious concerns about them possibly buying their slice of Australia because I think it's still, it's a great Aussie dream to own a piece of Australia and I think we should aspire to have that. But what's the LNP's answer to helping making housing affordable and accessible for first home buyers? What is the fix? What would you do?

Senator Bragg

The Liberal Party strongly believes in home ownership. It's at the core of our offering and it will be again at the next election because we believe that that provides a stronger society, stronger families, and even a stronger democracy, frankly. So getting the houses built on the supply side is absolutely critical. I mean, the only way out of this crisis is building your way out of it. So you've got to find a way to build out of it. And then secondly, we would be open-minded to some targeted demand side measures, but not the sort of things you've seen today. Because ultimately, if you put all your policies on the demand side, I think you make a bad situation even worse. So, really most of our policies for the next election will be focused on getting the houses built and on the supply side.

Jason Matthews

So your plan to fix this is to get the houses built so we've got enough for demand so it won't push the housing prices up. Is that what you're saying?

Senator Bragg

We've got to; that's right. We've got to get Australia building again. We've got to get well over, well more than 200,000 houses a year on average if we're going to house our massive population. And that's the only way really we can solve the problem. There's no other feasible way other than building our way out of this crisis. And the fact that we've been heading south over the past few years under Labor, I mean, the other point to make here is the RBA have said today that Labor's policies won't work for at least two years. So fast forward two years, that would have been six years of Labor. So, you know, we're looking at basically a terrible legacy from this government on housing. Probably this is the government that's going to kill the Australian dream.

Jason Matthews

Hey, one thing here from Joe, he says investors should only be able to buy new builds, leaving older, cheaper homes for first home buyers and owner occupiers. Your thoughts on that?

Senator Bragg

Look, we're not into increasing taxes or making it harder. I think you've already got a pretty bad supply side. I don't think the answer is increasing taxes in any form. And we would much rather see the supply side being promoted rather than more heavily taxed or regulated. I mean, there's so much red tape. I mean, in Queensland, as you know, there are parts of Queensland where you see a lot of apartments being built and it can be economic. But in many other parts of Australia, you can't build because the CFMEU has added a 30% premium. So I think the answer here is getting taxes down, getting regulation down, not proposing more taxes or more regulation.

Jason Matthews

Senator Andrew Bragg, Shadow Housing Minister. Thanks for your time this afternoon on 4BC Drive.

Senator Bragg

Thanks for having me. Cheers. Bye.

[Ends]

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