Interview with Natalie Barr, Sunrise
13 November 2024
NATALIE BARR: A shocking new report by the ACCC has revealed airfares in this country have skyrocketed since Rex fell into administration back in July. In some cases, those airfares have gone up by 95%. Now, in a last ditch effort to keep the regional provider alive, the Government has offered an $80 million tax funded lifelin. For their take, let's bring in Housing Minister Clare O'Neil and Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Good morning to both of you. Well, Clare, since Rex left those major city routes, flights from, let's have a look Adelaide to Melbourne, have gone up 95%. People are really noticing that. Obviously can't be justified.
CLARE O’NEIL: Yeah, absolutely. Nat, and now our main priority is making sure that Aussies pay fair air fares, especially coming into Christmas now, we'll have people around the country planning to go home visit old family and friends, and we want that experience to be a good one for them. We've had really serious competition issues in aviation in our country for decades, and our government is trying to do what we can to tackle those you mentioned that just yesterday, we announced an $80 million lifeline to keep wrecks in the air, and this is going to be really important, and there are lots of other measures that the government's taking that were outlined in a big white paper that was published by the government earlier this year. So there's a lot of work underway, but I wouldn't pretend that the problem's fixed. This is a really big challenge for the country.
NATALIE BARR: Yeah, it sounds like it. Jane, how do you make sure that you don't put that $80 million which I think only takes it through till June, it doesn't end up being wasted, because it's not going to necessarily save the entire company, is it?
JANE HUME: Yeah, well, this is good news temporarily, particularly for those that are in regional and rural communities. But you're right, this is a problem. It's been hiding in plain sight for some time. We had both the big airlines appear in front of the cost of living committee over 18 months ago, and they told us back then that what was needed was more competition to bring prices down in the market. The Government, however, seems to have been working on a different agenda. They were the ones that blocked Qatar entering the market and taking on those new 21 slots.
NATALIE BARR: But this is domestic though isn’t it?
JANE HUME: But international prices when they come down, they push down domestic prices as well. So this is a problem that is potentially of the government's making, and it is in the government's remit to be able to fix it by increasing competition in the market. Yet there's been a very cozy relationship between the government and particularly Qantas, as we've heard, over the last…
NATALIE BARR: Are you backing the $80 million?
JANE HUME: Yes, we are. We want to make sure that there is more competition in the market. Otherwise it's going to be a pretty miserable Christmas for a lot of families are going to be doing zoom Christmases rather than in person.
NATALIE BARR: Ok, let's go at housing and clogged up planning laws there in the firing line with a new report revealing that dozens of hoops developers need to go through in order to get just one home built in New South Wales, Premier Chris Minns is now pushing to overhaul the entire system. Clare red tape, one of the biggest complaints we hear from developers. You are the Federal Housing Minister, I know, and these go right down the line. What are you doing here?
CLARE O’NEIL: Look a massive amount now, and you would have heard me say that the Albanese Government has the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda that our country has had for decades. A big part of that is the work that we're doing with the states. We're trying to build 1.2 million homes over the coming five years. Because more houses means more affordable housing for Australians, planning is a really big part of the problem. It does sit with state governments, but that doesn't mean that our government is going to tap out like the previous government did on housing. What we're doing is actually stepping right in. And we've said to the states that we want them to make changes to their planning laws so that it's easier to build homes. We've seen the Victorian Government say make some really big, bold strides on that. New South Wales is following suit, and I'm really pleased to see those state governments working as hard as the Commonwealth is on trying to get a better solution for housing needs of Australians.
NATALIE BARR: Jane in New South Wales, there are 50 individual steps you need to take before getting an occupation certificate. How do we speed this up?
JANE HUME: It's just nuts, isn't it, and it took three months to work that out, which is the ultimate irony. In Victoria, my state. I was speaking to a council in Ballane, they have 18,000 houses ready to go that are waiting for state government approval, so there's still a long way to go. That's why the Coalition have committed to not just a freeze on the National Building Code for 10 years, so there's not more and changing red tape constantly, but also investing directly with either councils or developers to get that enabling infrastructure in new housing developments, because the only solution is supply. Supply is the only way to bring housing prices down. This Government has failed on every single metric, whether it be new home builds, whether it be new home owners, first time home owners, everything has failed, and we need to increase supply. But it's a little bit too, little too late.
NATALIE BARR: I know, but I think we need to get a black pen out and go through some of these hoops that people have had to jump through, and I don't think that's just happened in the last couple of years. Anyway, let's move on. And it appears Peter Dutton has begun channeling Donald Trump ahead of our own election, taking a page out of the President Elect's book when discussing the cost of living, take a look.
(excerpt starts)
PETER DUTTON: Just don't think any Australian can say that they're better off today than they were two and a half years ago.
DONALD TRUMP: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
(excerpt ends)
NATALIE BARR: Jane, can you see the similarity there?
JANE HUME: Donald Trump is probably taking a page out of Peter Dutton there. Quite frankly, I've been the chair of the cost of living committee now for more than two years. We report next week, so you'll be seeing a cost of living report coming from a Coalition led Senate inquiry, because this has been the number one issue for Australians for a long time. Now, if Clare's Government are only just catching up now. Good luck to them.
NATALIE BARR: Well, Clare, this actually goes a long way back, all the way back to 1980 with Ronald Reagan. Take a listen.
(excerpt starts)
RONALD REAGAN: I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?
(excerpt ends)
NATALIE BARR: There you go. It worked for Reagan. It worked for Trump. Are you worried this line will work for Peter Dutton?
CLARE O’NEIL: Well, actually, now I'm not that concerned about the politics. I'm much more concerned about what's happening for people at home at the moment. And the truth is that the last couple of years, we've experienced a really significant issue with the cost of living, not just in our country, as you've heard there, but actually right around the world. The important thing is that that has been the number one focus of our government. That's why we've delivered a tax cut for every single Australian taxpayer, energy bill, price relief, a significant decrease to the cost of medicine, all these things. I just want to say one more thing Nat.
JANE HUME: And Australians still aren’t feeling heard.
CLARE O’NEIL: Jane, Jane, Jane said, Jane said she's got it, excuse me, Jane said she's got it. Excuse me, Jane said she's got a big report coming out next, next week. I just want to remind you that in two and a half years, the Coalition have not put forward one single costed policy...
JANE HUME: Yes we have.
CLARE O’NEIL: So now's the time to hear, to hear from Jane and her colleagues…
JANE HUME: We’ve actually put forward legislation…
CLARE O’NEIL: what it is, what it is…
JANE HUME: You've just ignored it.
CLARE O’NEIL: The question is, what will Jane and her colleagues do about this problem? We've got a plan, and I want to hear theirs.
NATALIE BARR: Okay, well, Jane, if you say you've put through the cost of policies, maybe you need to get the courier, take it to them and show them because someone's not getting it through. Thank you very much. We'll see next week.