Interview with James Glenday, ABC News Breakfast

BRIDGET BRENNAN, HOST: A group of Australians is preparing to disembark the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly virus outbreak, before they travel on a chartered flight to Perth. Three passengers have died and eight others have been infected on board the ship, which is now docked in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: 149 passengers and crew are being screened on board before being brought to shore and then flown to their home nations.

Some have already left. Four Australian citizens, one permanent resident, and a New Zealand resident will be quarantined on arrival here in Australia. None are displaying symptoms of the virus.

Well, for more on this and the rest of the day's news, we're joined by the Federal Environment Minister and government frontbencher Murray Watt, who is in Canberra. Minister, welcome back to the program. MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Hi James, good to be with you.

JAMES GLENDAY: Now, you've got an announcement which I'll get to in a moment, but I just wanted to start with the Australians on this ship that has had so many of these hantavirus cases now. I think three deaths in total on the ship. Can you tell us what's going to happen to the Australians when they come back to Australia?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, it's obviously a terrible situation that these people are in, you know, going on a cruise, expecting to have a nice holiday and finding themselves in this situation. We have agreed to repatriate a small number of Australians in the order of about four from memory, and also one resident of another country, to Australia for medical treatment.

Arrangements are being made with the states and territories around the quarantining of those people, but all of that work is now underway, has been underway over the last day or two. We obviously want to make sure that Australians receive the care that they need in this situation. JAMES GLENDAY: Are they on a government-funded flight?

Is it a government plane? MURRAY WATT: Look, I don't have that level of detail with me, James. What we have been focused on, though, is making sure that Australians do get the care that they need.

This is not a situation that people have walked into deliberately. And I think all Australians would want to see each other looked after in this sort of situation. JAMES GLENDAY: And just one more on this, are you expecting they'll be in one of the quarantine centres?

Is there a facility that's ready to take these people? MURRAY WATT: When I came on this morning, we didn't have that information available to disclose, James, but I do know that there are discussions underway with the states and territories to make sure that the proper quarantine arrangements are in place. That's obviously important for the people that we're bringing back, but it's important for the wider community as well.

JAMES GLENDAY: Okay. Now, you, of course, are getting ready for the budget, like the rest of the government is this week. Australia's behind on its home building targets, substantially behind according to some estimates.

What are you doing in this budget, in your portfolio, to try to speed things up? MURRAY WATT: Yeah, there's no doubt that we need to be doing more, James, to provide the housing that Australians need. We simply weren't building enough homes as a country over the last decade or so, and that's now turned around under our government.

We've obviously made big investments already towards building more social and affordable housing around the country. But the announcement that we're making today is that we'll be allocating over $500 million in this year's budget to speed up the approvals of housing, energy and other projects that the country needs. This is really about implementing those reforms that we got through the Parliament at the end of last year, the historic reforms to our environmental laws nationally.

And what they were all about was making sure that we could speed up the processes for granting the environmental approvals needed to deliver the housing and other projects we needed, while also, of course, making sure that we're protecting the environment. So it's good to see that investment coming through the budget this year. I should say we are making progress more generally, though, on housing approvals.

You might remember last year the Treasurer's Economic Roundtable that was held - we committed to clear 26,000 homes that were in the backlog of the environmental approval queue. We're up to 20,000 of those that have now been cleared and we expect to get to that full 26(,000) over the next couple of months. So we're doing what we can within the laws that we have at the moment and now that we've got these new laws in place, that will allow us to find much more streamlined pathways to get the housing delivered that we need while also making sure we have strong environmental protections.

JAMES GLENDAY: So that's on the supply side, and there were some other announcements about sewerage and infrastructure over the weekend. You're also going to try and reduce demand, at least slightly in the long run, by winding back negative gearing and capital gains. Do you expect that most Australians are going to be on board with this and that they'll forgive you for essentially breaking a promise at the last election?

MURRAY WATT: Well, I know there's been a lot of speculation about this, James, in the newspapers and the news TV shows like this one, but we haven't confirmed any of that and we've only got a couple of days to wait now until the Federal Budget's announced. But what I can say is that while we have been investing an enormous amount in supply, we do recognise that there are other barriers facing especially younger people when it comes to getting into the housing market.

I mean, I bought my first home when I was in my early 30s about 20 years ago. It's much, much harder for younger people to get into the market than it was when I bought my home. So we've got to do something about that and make sure that there's an equitable situation for younger Australians trying to get into the market as well.

JAMES GLENDAY: Okay, I will say it fuels more than speculation. Certainly a lot of it's being fuelled by your government. I just have two other quick things I want to take you through before we let you go.

MURRAY WATT: JAMES GLENDAY: One is about a story that's on our website this morning about Australian apprentices being targeted by social media influencers to sign up to really expensive courses. Are you seeing as a government more and more of these sorts of schemes online? MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I was very concerned to see that report, James, and it's terrible to see young Australians, young tradies getting ripped off in this kind of way.

I will remind people that there are lots of opportunities for people to get the training that they need through legitimate pathways, especially as a result of our free TAFE initiative that we've had in place. But the reality is, unfortunately, that we are seeing a much wider range of scams in Australia and across the world in all sorts of areas. I mean, I think people have been used to scams around financial payments and that kind of thing in the past, but we're seeing them now in other spaces like this as well.

So my advice to the younger people who are considering entering these programs is have a very good look at them, ask questions, and of course there's good information available about avoiding scams on the ASIC website as well. JAMES GLENDAY: And just before I let you go, there's been a lot of discussion about the rise of One Nation and the Farrer by-election at the weekend, what it all means for Federal Parliament and the country.

Everyone watching knows that you dislike both the Coalition and One Nation, but I'm curious as to who you dislike more. Who would you have preferred to see win at the weekend? MURRAY WATT: To me, it's not really about disliking anyone, James, it's about making sure that we have a government in place that actually is dealing with the challenges that working Australians are facing.

That's why in this budget we'll have a very strong focus on supporting people into the housing market, strong healthcare through Medicare, a universal health system, cost of living support, of course, across the board. And the reality is that both the Liberals and (One Nation) have voted against every form of cost of living relief our Government has tried to provide.

They voted against – together - our housing initiatives. So if One Nation wants to get around the country pretending to be the friends of battlers in our country, I'll be there to remind people that they voted against cheaper medicines, they voted against penalty rates, they voted against housing investments, they voted against every other form of cost of living relief that we've provided, and I don't think that's what Australians are looking for right now.

JAMES GLENDAY: Environment Minister Murray Watt, thank you for joining our program. MURRAY WATT: Thanks, James. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.