Interview with Emma Rebellato, News Breakfast, ABC

Subjects: aged care, changes to property tax, housing affordability Emma Rebellato: Okay, let’s get more on federal politics now, and we’re joined by Housing Minister Clare O’Neil from Parliament House in Canberra. Good morning. Clare O’Neil: Good morning, Emma, great to be with you.

I want to take you to our top story first, and that’s those wait times for aged care. A year to get into a home or even to get in‑home support care. This is pretty shameful, isn’t it?

Well, Emma, you probably remember that we inherited an aged care system that was falling apart under the previous government. There was a Royal Commission report into aged care in our country that was simply titled ‘Neglect’. Older people in our nation were being treated with utter disrespect and frankly inhumanity.

We have made record investments in trying to rebuild that system, but I think these numbers show that there’s still work to do and we acknowledge that. You can’t turn around a huge system like aged care in 4 years, but we’ve made an enormous amount of progress and we’ll continue working away. Minister, many people are asking why release this pretty damning data on Budget day?

Were you hoping this would be buried? Well actually, Emma, I just remind you the only reason that Australians have this information, which is not something they’ve had access to before, is because we’re committed to transparency about government programs. We want to make sure that our aged care system works functionally and appropriately, and we want to make sure that there’s accountability.

So that’s why Australians have this data. And as I said, we’ve made huge strides. Remember a nurse in every nursing home, more care for the older people who need it, but we’ve still got a ways to go here and we acknowledge that.

Let’s talk about a couple of the big changes in the federal Budget in housing, and that’s the changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing. How quickly do you think this could filter through? Like do you think we’re going to see a difference, for instance, at auctions this weekend?

Yeah, so just quickly, Australians have got a housing system here that’s stacked against them, and we really want particularly young people to have a chance to get ahead and to get into their own home. So this Budget is a housing budget. It’s about 2 really important things.

The first is putting first homeowners on a level playing field with investors, and the second is building many more homes for the country. Now you asked about when those effects will be felt. I’m not pretending that everything is going to get fixed tomorrow or this weekend, but there will be a difference at auctions this weekend.

These changes will mean that there will be just a bit fewer investors at every auction, and that puts that younger person who’s trying to get into their first home in a better position. Don’t forget too, Emma, that is paired with the massive 5 per cent Deposit Program, which has now helped 240,000 Australians into their own home. So first‑home buyers are not only going to be on a level field, in many instances they’ll have the government right behind them.

Minister, we’ve got a lot of questions regarding these changes because of the grandfathering system and when they’ll all kick in. We’ve been asked about this particular scenario, if I can put it to you. If you own a family home, you’ve owned it for a while now, but you buy another home, let’s say this weekend, you’re going to move into that one, but you want to turn your original home into an investment.

Can you still negatively gear under the old rules, or does it fall under the new ones? You can negatively gear under the old rules. So this is really about when you made that property purchase.

If you own an existing home that’s not currently being used as an investment property, you can turn it into an investment property later. Can I just say something really important about this. We are not trying to remove investors from the Australian housing market.

We want people to get ahead, and if you’re doing well and you’re able to do well through investing in property, then good on you, we want you to succeed and to build wealth for your family. All we’re saying is that we want to make sure that when people are making those investments that they’re actually helping with the biggest national challenge we face on housing, and that is building new homes for the country.

So these property tax concessions, they’ll remain but they’re just going to be secured for new homes. Thank you for answering that, we appreciate it. Coalition leader Angus Taylor, he’s going to be giving his Budget‑in‑reply speech tonight.

Now he’s already said that he wants to tie net migration to the pace of home building. Now figures in the Budget showed that migration is, we’re seeing big numbers, it’s going to grow by 990,000 over the 4 financial years, a total of 55,000 more migrants expected this financial year and the next than previously estimated. Is this going to put another squeeze on the housing market?

Look, Emma, I see a lot of politics in the housing conversation, and this is a complex issue. Migration is a piece in the puzzle here, it’s not the dominant issue and it’s certainly not the only issue. We saw that during COVID, Emma, you remember that, you know, hundreds of thousands of people effectively left the country and house prices absolutely went through the roof.

Now that doesn’t mean it’s not playing any part here. It’s important that we reduce migration and our government is doing exactly that. We have brought migration down by about 45 per cent since its post‑COVID peak.

What I would say is if you think you can solve Australia’s housing challenges just through the migration system, you’ve got rocks in your head. That is a completely piecemeal approach to what is a big and complicated challenge facing the country. We’ve got a housing crisis that’s been building for 40 years because there’s no silver bullet here.

There’s lots of things going on and that’s why you see our government coming forward with a comprehensive plan here that tackles the problem from every angle. We are throwing everything at this problem because we see the pain this is causing for Australians. And we’re coming forward with real answers to their concerns, and this Budget is a big, important part of that.

Minister, just on that with young people, we know so many young people are trying to get ahead of the game by investing in shares. They’re looking to do other things because their income is just not enough. With these changes do you concede that this is just going to take young people so much longer to be able to afford to get a house?

Well of course that’s not the case and the data shows that. Because of the changes that we’re making here to level the playing field between investors and first‑home buyers, we’re going to see 75,000 rental households become homeowners because of the changes that we’re making. That is a massive change that will wind back 10 years of homeownership decline in our country.

And it’s part of a broader plan here, Emma. Remember this is a complex problem but I want people at home to know something really important. We see the pain that you are in.

The only people I see in this country saying that this is a great system and it’s working for everyone are the Liberals and the Nationals, and I think we’re going to hear about that tonight. This housing system is broken for the people who need it most, and we are going through in a really diligent way tackling the problem from every angle and making really meaningful change that will help Australians from this weekend.

Minister, finally, I don’t know if you have an update for us, but we know that the plane containing a few Australians who were on the hantavirus cruise ship, we understand, we heard reports there was a delay in them leaving the Netherlands. Do you know if they’re on their way or what’s happened with that? Oh, Emma, I’m sorry, Mark Butler would be the person to talk to about that one.

I don’t have an update. But I just say our heart goes out to these poor people who have experienced such a trauma. The Australian Government will help people when they’re in this type of situation overseas and I’ll let Mark speak to the detail of their return to Australia.

Minister, appreciate your time this morning, thank you. Great, thanks Emma.