Michael Sukkar MP

Interview with Laura Jayes – Sky News

SHADOW MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, NDIS, HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS – THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH LAURA JAYES – SKY NEWS

Tuesday 5 March, 2024

TOPICS: Labor’s housing crisis, the Coalition’s cheaper and cleaner energy policy, Dunkley by-election

E&OE

Laura Jayes: Let’s head to Melbourne now. Join me live now as the shadow housing Minister, Michael Sukkar. We are going to talk housing, Michael. And it was one of the core concerns of the people of the shire as well. But first I want to ask you about the Dunkley byelection. Also what I was talking to Simon about there, I mean, were you one of those within the Liberal Party that said that you shouldn’t be chasing down the teal seats, it should be outer suburban seats? And have you changed your mind after the Dunkley result?

Michael Sukkar: Great to be with you, Laura. No, I actually don’t know of anyone who has actually said that. I know it’s been reported widely in the media. The truth is, Laura, when you are a party of government as we are, you have to put your best foot forward in every seat around the country. Now, of course, pragmatic political considerations coming the way you can win and what your pathway to victory is. But I don’t really think that there’s any serious people in the coalition who think that we should be giving up on any seats, let alone seats we’ve held in the past. So I think the very wise words of our impressive candidate there and Cook are correct. That in the end there’s a whole swathe of seats we have to win and if you want to be a party of government, you have to appeal to people across across a pretty broad geographic, social and even political spectrum. And that’s what we’ve successfully done in the past and I’m hopeful and confident we can do it again.

Laura Jayes: Okay. A broad church moving back to that broad church, but a 2 per cent swing in Dunkley does not bode well for you winning enough seats at the next election. Would you agree?

Michael Sukkar: Well, this we had a significant increase in our primary vote in Dunkley. A 2PP swing. I think the last time I looked about 3.6 per cent in the end. I said this yesterday, Laura and I agree and I reiterate it, politics in Australia is an arm wrestle and the idea that Dunkley was going to be some sort of knockout blow either for the government or for the opposition, I think is naive. Australians are hurting, there’s no doubt about it. I think they’re very disappointed in the first 20 months of this Labor Government. I think they’re concerned that a number of broken promises, including on reducing energy prices by $275. Obviously a range of other broken promises and in housing we’ve seen on every metric, whether it’s first home buyers, whether it’s new home starts, whether it’s new home builds, whether it’s rents, on every metric it has gone quite terribly since the election of this Labor government.

Laura Jayes: Hang on, it’s not just since the election of this Labor government. Right. The housing crisis didn’t start, you know, a year and a half ago. You’d have to agree there.

Michael Sukkar: There’s always been challenges, but if you look at on every metric I’ve just mentioned, we are now in a demonstrably worse position than we were when Labor came to government. So first time buyers are at the lowest levels now since the Gillard government. New home approvals data that we saw yesterday shows that not only is Labor going to not meet their 1.2 million home commitment, they’re going to fall hundreds of thousands of homes short. And the problem with approvals data being so bad law is if you think there’s a housing crisis now, you ain’t seen nothing yet because the approvals are down. Therefore, even fewer homes will be built in the short to medium term future. And at the same time we’ve got a government running an unconstrained migration program at I’m a product of migration myself, so I’m very supportive of migration, but it’s got to be planned and you’ve got to be able to know where on earth the people are going to live. This government hasn’t done that. So, on all the data I’ve just outlined, Laura, it is worse since this government came to power. I’m not saying it was all rainbows and lollipops before that, but it’s a hell of a lot worse. And there’s no plan, no idea and in fact not any commitment from these government on home ownership.

Laura Jayes: Do you think you’re going to win votes by having a nuclear plan which includes large scale?

Michael Sukkar: Look, Laura, I’ll leave it to very smart political observers like you.

Laura Jayes: No one wants to touch this today from your side of politics. Why is that?

Michael Sukkar: I’m very happy to touch it. I’m very happy to touch it. My point, though, is I think we need to get away from and I’m talking we collectively in politics – are kind of running the the ongoing scoreboard commentary. And our job will be in the end policies that bring down energy prices that, sure we have a stable grid. I think if you do the right things in that sphere, then the politics will look after itself. It’s a bit like housing. When I was housing minister, I was criticised, for example, for our time guarantee scheme, which enables first time buyers to purchase a home with a 5 per cent deposit rather than a 20 per cent deposit. Well fast forward three years later. It’s now supporting one in three first home buyers. So I took a lot of criticism at the time, but I was confident it was a good policy. I think in the end if we focus on good policy, on energy, the politics will follow in a positive way, Laura.

Laura Jayes: Okay. I guess the way I think of it here, Michael, and I wonder if you agree with me is that if you are going to capture the imagination of some of these younger, more progressive, not not progressive voters, but perhaps more progressive, just from the center left of politics, you need to perhaps, Yes, push ahead with a nuclear plan, be you know, technology agnostic. But I think this would be the skepticism that your side of politics might use this to slow down the move towards renewables. Is that what’s happening here?

Michael Sukkar: No, I think what you’re saying around the world, Laura, is a coal to nuclear transition. I mean, that’s not just proposed in comparable jurisdictions.

Laura Jayes: But it’s a bit of a mixed.

Michael Sukkar: Well, it’s it’s pretty widespread. And if you look at the G20, the adoption of nuclear is is not unusual. I think the truth here is, is how on earth do we made our environmental objectives whilst at the same time delivering baseload secure, stable energy at an affordable price? And Anthony Albanese went to the last election promising – he stared down the barrel of a camera on 97 occasions and said he’d reduce your viewers’ power prices by $275 a year. Well, not only is he failed that the prices are going up. So, I think the test for us will be in trying to bring back credibility to this debate is not go down the path of Anthony Albanese saying one thing before an election and doing another thing after, but actually making promises that we’re confident we can deliver.

Laura Jayes: We’ve just seen the breaking news here. The average health insurance premium to rise by 3.3 per cent and NIB said that will be about 4 per cent I know you have. I haven’t had a chance to look at this. Michael Sukkar It’s just come through to me here. But is that about what you would expect? This is obviously approved by the Health Minister, Mark Butler.

Michael Sukkar: Look, Laura, yeah I haven’t seen it obviously before joining you. I mean, my expectation would be that it’s incumbent on the government to get the best possible price for consumers. But at the same time, you’ve got to have a sustainable health sector. I mean, during the COVID period, for example, you saw virtually nil increases. And that was something that Greg Hunt, I think worked very hard to deliver. I think we’ll digest it. I think in the context of the cost of living crisis that we’re feeling right now, I don’t think many people are going to be celebrating an increase of that size. I think it will just be another burden on top of what they’re feeling in their rent or in their mortgage or at the supermarket or in their energy bills and I don’t want to just go half cocked now without seeing what sits behind that.

Laura Jayes: Okay. We’ll leave it there. Thanks so much, Michael Sukkar. We’ll speak soon.

Michael Sukkar: Good on you, Laura. Thanks so much.

Ends