Interview with Natalie Barr, Sunrise

31 July 2024

NATALIE BARR: New Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says she is ready to take on the challenge of achieving the Government’s housing target. 163,000 dwellings were approved in the last financial year. That is a far cry from the 240,000 homes needed to reach the government's ultimate 1.2 million housing goal over the next five years. But their take let's bring in new Housing Minister Clare O'Neil and Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Clare, congratulations on your new role. Tell us what you're going to do differently to meet those targets.

CLARE O’NEIL: Well thanks Nat, really appreciate that. And it's a huge privilege to take on this new role, because this is an issue that affects the lives of millions of people in our country. There's no question that Australia is experiencing a housing crisis, and a lot of the people watching at home would be feeling that in their own lives, paying too much in rent, rents, going up too fast, and for a whole generation of young people, a sense that dream of home ownership is slipping away. Now, this is a crisis. That's a generation in the making, and it's one that our government has said we are going to try to do something about. So we are engaging in housing in a really big way. A lot of Australians may not know this, but in that last federal budget that we delivered, there was more dollars for housing than was spent in the entire nine years that the coalition were in power. We are back in this in a big way, but I don't want to undercook the scale of the task here. We have got a really serious problem on our hands, and my job is to make sure that we get more homes for more Australians so we can make sure that Australians can see that dream of home ownership is a reality for them.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah Jane, Clare is right. This didn't just come upon us in the last two years, did it? has been a lot of years in the making. What do you think the solution to Australia's housing crisis is?

JANE HUME: Well, and yet, housing approvals were lower in the last month than they had been, in years. In fact, housing approvals in the last 12 months have been lower since they've been since 2011. And this is a crisis of the government's own making. Not only has immigration allowed to go out of control, we now have more people coming to the country than we can possibly house, but we've also seen building costs go up because of, you know, the CFMEU on work sites has pushed up the cost of building costs. Inflation still remains out of control. That's why the RBA keeps having to lift interest rates. Clare has a big job on her hands here, not just in her own portfolio but in others as well. Because quite frankly, unless you can get inflation under control, which the last budget failed to do, well then the RBA is going to keep having to lift interest rates. Building approvals will keep going down because people simply do not have the confidence or the money to invest in housing. There is no way you're going to make that one point million, that 1.2 million housing target. You're already 350,000 houses behind Clare.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah. And we'll talk to Clare obviously in the coming weeks. But you’re right. Building costs 40% higher now than they were pre-Covid. If you’re trying to build a house, even a back deck, you’d know that. And we need to sort the skills shortage out don’t we. So yeah, good luck Clare but we will talk about that more. Moving on today though, in news overnight Budget airline Rex has entered voluntary administration, grounding it’s fleet of aircraft in the major airports. Clare, we know the government is watching this, we heard the Prime Minister yesterday. Is it likely, the government will step in with money to help save those regional routes?

CLARE O’NEIL: Well, Nat, I know Catherine King is taking a really close look at this situation, and it's something that the government is watching very closely because there's no question that we've got competition issues with our airlines in Australia.

I've seen some reporting about some behaviour in the market in recent weeks that I think is really concerning. So, Rex is an important part of competition in that market. And our government's just having a look at that at the moment. But it's very early days. Rex went into administration literally yesterday. And so the government's the government will be working on this issue.

NATALIE BARR: Jane, if Rex disappears, we have some of these regional routes. That's their only air link to the cities. What would you do?

JANE HUME: Yeah regional communities rely on airlines like Rex and particularly Rex. My heart goes out to those families of employees at Rex at the moment, who are only hearing this news in the last 24 hours, that their company is teetering on the brink, and also those communities that are relying on Rex Airlines. I'm quite surprised at the Prime Minister's response, which was to disparage commercial decisions made by Rex to compete with Qantas. Of course, we have a lack of competition in the airline industry. Clare is right. But, you know, quite frankly, for a government that blocked Qatar Airways, getting in additional routes into Australia, I think that that's a rather disingenuous statement. We want to make sure that the government is dealing directly with the administrators, with the executive seeing what the solutions are to keep Rex afloat because it's too important, a lifeline to too many regional communities.

NATALIE BARR: Okay. Just before we go, Jane, last week we were talking about dancing AI on TikTok. Shirvo said he'd like to see you dance for real. Let's take a look at this. You've actually done it. We didn’t realise you had so many moves Jane. Politicians can bust a move.

JANE HUME: Clearly there is no threshold for embarrassment for me, quite clearly. But, you know, let me put the challenge out there, Clare I reckon you've got the moves. Get the rizz on. Get down with the young people and you know be totally brat about the whole thing. You could do that.

NATALIE BARR: What was that Jane, I've never seen that one?

CLARE O’NEIL: I love it. Jane, I watched the video this morning, and I thought, I'm so lucky because my kids are so young, they still think I'm cool. But are your teenagers still talking to you, Jane?

JANE HUME: Do you know, my daughter actually said to me, mum, did anybody show you how normal people do it?

CLARE O’NEIL: Oh, my kids are so cruel.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah, I'd like to see what your kids think of that Jane. Look, I shouldn't talk. Good on you for having a go. Clare, the ball's in your court now.

CLARE O’NEIL: Okay, I think I'm going to leave it to the living room and the dance floor now for myself.

NATALIE BARR: Thank you. See you next week.

MATT SHIRVINGTON: I've never seen Clare laugh so much watching Jane. That was awesome.