Bragg says states and councils must do ‘heavy lifting’ on housing affordability
Andrew Bragg has accused the federal government’s housing future fund of having “completely failed”. He says the Coalition will announce its own housing supply policy that he says has to “find a way to get local councils and states to actually do the heavy lifting here”.
The shadow assistant minister for home ownership says:
This current federal government has tried to pay the states to build house, which has completely failed. So we would have to look at stronger measures to ensure that we could get lower councils and states to build houses. I want to make an point point here – Nimby-ism is poison for young people. And when you see councils and states block developments, particularly apartment buildings, that is a disaster for young people. So we have to hit the states and the councils in whichever way we can to make sure that we build the supply that’s needed.
Bragg says Australia could look to New Zealand’s new policy to tie payments to councils with housing completions, he says “there are a range of things that you could do.”
In case you missed it, Bragg has talked to our political editor Karen Middleton on last week’s Australian politics podcast:
Key events
Government services Bill Shorten is urging Australians to skip the queues in Services Australia service centres as the online online booking system is running nation-wide.
In a statement released this morning Shorten said:
At last, you can book appointments to see Services Australia online, not just turn up and be kept waiting.
After a successful pilot in Hobart earlier this year, Australians can now use the new online booking capability to make appointments in more than 300 service centres nationally.
The online appointment booking option will be particularly helpful to older and younger Australians, people with disability, parents with young children and carers, who are part of the cohort this new system was designed to assist now.
Since launching, already more than 81,700 appointments have been booked online, according to the minister’s statement.
Evacuations warning as severe weather pounds Tasmania
AAP has more details on the extreme weather in Tasmania:
Tasmanian residents are being urged to get ready to evacuate their homes and businesses as severe winds and heavy rainfall continue to batter the state.
Emergency services responded to 330 incidents in the 24 hours to 8am on Sunday, with a stack of warnings issued for extreme weather expected for the next few days.
People in south-east Tasmanian towns including Meadowbank, Glenora, Bushy Park, Gretna and Macquarie Plains are being told to prepare for flooding, with authorities suggesting they could become isolated for a number of days.
Warning properties might become inundated and some major roads may need to be closed, the Tasmanian SES encouraged those residents to leave the area. Executive director Mick Lowe said:
Tasmania SES has issued a flood watch and act for communities along the Derwent River … please prepare now to go to a safer place if conditions become more dangerous.
There is potential for properties to be inundated, and roads may not be accessible … if flooding in your area occurs, remember, never drive or enter flood waters.
An evacuation centre has been opened in New Norfolk.
Bragg defends NSW Liberal chief’s position after council elections debacle
Finally, Bragg has also defended Liberal party’s NSW president, Don Harwin, staying in his role after the “catastrophic failure” of the division to nominate candidates for local government elections.
Asked whether he was open to administrators being sent in, Bragg said:
I’m more interested in looking at the core competency of the division rather than getting into personality debates.
Asked about calls for Harwin to go, Bragg says:
I don’t see any case for Don to go. I think he’s done a good job as president. I don’t think that having an election for president now inside the New South Wales division would be in the interests of the party, and at the end of the day, people love talking about these things, but the core competencies are on display – you’ve got candidates in the field and you’re raising money.
Bragg says gender identity a reasonable question for census
Bragg says a question on gender identity – not just sexual preference – would be appropriate to ask in the census.
After a week in which the government was heavily criticised for excluding proposed new questions on sexual orientation and gender identity, the prime minister reneged and said the 2026 census would include “one question about sexuality, sexual preference”.
Asked whether he thinks there should also be a question on gender identity as well, Bragg said:
It’s been my view for a long time that gender identity and sexual orientation are reasonable questions to ask in a modern society. I think the fact the PM has tied himself in knots on this issue shows a great weakness in his own leadership.
Bragg says Labor ‘mean’ for not letting first-home buyers access super
Bragg is defending the Coalition’s plan to let first-home buyers access up to $50,000 of their superannuation to put down a deposit as “one of the best ideas in the policy marketplace”.
The key determinant for your success in retirement is not your superannuation balance, it’s your housing status.
… I think that it is a particularly mean and nasty policy for the Labor party to be denying people access to their own money.
David Speers asks Bragg about the ramifications when New Zealand implemented the policy and “house prices took off like a rocket”. He says house prices have stabilised in Auckland after a number of changes, including to planning controls.
It’s an $11 trillion market. Allowing people in their 30s, for example, to use their money to get a first home will set them up for a much better lifestyle in retirement, because if you are a retired renter on the pension, your life is going to be much more difficult than it otherwise would be, and this is your own money.
So I think that the idea that we’re now the only country effectively that doesn’t allow people to use their own money for housing is crazy.
Bragg says states and councils must do ‘heavy lifting’ on housing affordability
Andrew Bragg has accused the federal government’s housing future fund of having “completely failed”. He says the Coalition will announce its own housing supply policy that he says has to “find a way to get local councils and states to actually do the heavy lifting here”.
The shadow assistant minister for home ownership says:
This current federal government has tried to pay the states to build house, which has completely failed. So we would have to look at stronger measures to ensure that we could get lower councils and states to build houses. I want to make an point point here – Nimby-ism is poison for young people. And when you see councils and states block developments, particularly apartment buildings, that is a disaster for young people. So we have to hit the states and the councils in whichever way we can to make sure that we build the supply that’s needed.
Bragg says Australia could look to New Zealand’s new policy to tie payments to councils with housing completions, he says “there are a range of things that you could do.”
In case you missed it, Bragg has talked to our political editor Karen Middleton on last week’s Australian politics podcast:
Bragg says building ‘a lot more houses’ is key to improving affordability
Talking about the opposition’s plan to improve housing affordability, Andrew Bragg says lowering migration would make housing more affordable but emphasises “the key here is to build the houses so that first-home buyers can actually get into them”.
How do you build more houses, according to Bragg?
If the CFMEU hadn’t been allowed to run the migration program, then we would have had more builders and construction workers which would have helped us build the houses we need.
… If you really want to solve the problem, you have to build a lot more houses, and then you’ve got to find a way to tilt the scales in favour of first-home buyers that don’t destroy the market and make it worse.
Bragg says he believes the Greens’ focus on changing AirBnb setting is “tinkering” and proposed changes to tax policy would make a “minuscule difference”.
Bragg says Coalition’s foreign student caps will be detailed ‘in due course’
The shadow assistant minister for home ownership, Andrew Bragg, is speaking to ABC Insiders this morning discussing the government’s announcement this week they plan to cap international student enrolments at 270,000. His party’s leader Peter Dutton has been linking high migration numbers to housing affordability.
Bragg is backing that line from Dutton, but being shy of details what their own policy capping foreign students:
There is a link between the amount of people who are coming into the country and housing accessibility, so that’s why we announced in budget in reply that there would be caps on foreign students – and the detailed caps will be announced in due course.
Asked whether what the government announced is enough, or the Coalition would go further, Bragg said “that’s under consideration”.
It is very important that we put homeownership at the primacy of our policy offering – that’s something that we’ve done as a party back since the Menzies era.
…we make no apology for putting the Australian dream before the interests of any export industry.
…we are consulting with the sector and ours will be announced well and truly before the election.
Labor says prescription reforms saved $525m while more medicines added today
The government says Australians have saved over half a billion dollars ($525m) on the cost of their medicines thanks to their reforms, as more are added to the 60 day prescriptions.
A year after Labor’s 60-day dispensing changes were introduced, the health minister, Mark Butler, released cost saving estimates this morning broken down by state:
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ACT – $11m saved on over 1.2m cheaper scripts.
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NSW – $140m saved on over 15m cheaper scripts.
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NT – $2.9m saved on over 300,000 cheaper scripts.
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QLD – $88 million saved on over 9m cheaper scripts.
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SA – $29m saved on over 3m cheaper scripts.
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Tas – $9m saved on over 1m cheaper scripts.
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VIC – $118m saved on over 12m cheaper scripts.
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WA – $51m saved on over 5m cheaper scripts.
From today, the 60 day prescriptions were also expanded to a third group of medicines that will treat:
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acne
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anxiety disorders
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asthma
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constipation
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depression
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gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
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glaucoma
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dry eyes
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obstructive pulmonary disease, and
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Parkinson’s disease
More on the extreme heats in other parts of the country this morning.
The Bureau of Neteorology says the forecast temperatures in southern and western Queensland are up to 15 degrees above average again today, as maximum temperatures could approach 40C again in the west and 36C in the south-east.
Brisbane and Darwin are both predicted to reach up to 33C while 27C is forecast for Sydney.
Spirit of Tasmania departure called off amid rough weather
Last night’s Spirit of Tasmania was cancelled due to the extreme weather.
The company said in a statement adverse weather conditions meant the ship would not be sailing from Devonport to Geelong as planned Saturday night but would leave instead this morning:
Passengers booked on tonight’s sailing are welcome to board the vessel as normal today and stay overnight. The vessel is expected to depart Devonport for Geelong tomorrow morning, 1 September, at approximately 7.30am.
A series of cold fronts have brought widespread wind gusts to South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania over the weekend. The Bureau of Meteorology said the 165km/h gust recorded at Maatsuyker Island yesterday would be the equivalent strength of a category-three tropical cyclone:
Good morning!
This first weekend of spring has brought extreme weather as parts of the country are being hit with sweltering heat – weather warnings are in place across Victoria and Tasmania.
Multiple flood warnings are current in Tasmania, including a major warning in place for the River Derwent, as residents near New Norfolk have been warned by the SES to prepare to leave.
The extreme weather has left about 30,000 Tasmanians without power across the state this morning. TasNetworks say they have 117 outages reported in the north and north-west and 20 in the south.
The Bureau of Meteorology has also issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds affecting most regions in Victoria except the very north-most part of the state.
The bureau says damaging winds will develop into destructive winds about coastal and alpine areas late on Sunday into early Monday, affecting people in Central, East Gippsland, South West, North Central, West and South Gippsland, Wimmera and parts of Northern Country, North East and Mallee Forecast districts.
Let’s get going, plenty more news coming your way this Sunday.
