Interview with Sally Sara, ABC RN Breakfast

Murray Watt, welcome back to Breakfast. MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Hi Sally, good to be with you. SALLY SARA: Firstly, we've heard this morning about growing concern about this outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, also in Uganda.

How concerned is the Federal Government, and will Australia play any role here? MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well that story has obviously just broken overnight, Sally, so I can't say I've got a full briefing for you to disclose. But I'm sure that our health officials will be working with other countries in terms of the response to this.

You know, I think we've seen previously around the world outbreaks of Ebola have been of great concern to the world. So, as I say, I'm sure that some of our officials in the Health Department would be working with their international counterparts about this as well. SALLY SARA: Minister, if we're returning to federal politics, this morning's Newspoll shows that 47 per cent of those surveyed thought that the Federal Budget last week was a bad budget.

That puts it in rare company with the infamous budgets of 2014 and 1993. Did you expect that kind of reaction? MURRAY WATT: Well, we didn't design these budget measures, Sally, so that we could get some sort of short-term hit in the polls.

We didn't expect to get a bounce in the polls. What we're doing it to achieve is to boost the number of young Australians who can get a foothold in the housing market. As you would have seen in the budget last week, we expect that the measures we've undertaken will allow 75,000 more Australians to buy a home, so that's in addition to those who would be buying it anyway.

I think the reality is that despite the government's efforts to invest in supply, and they have been huge, we still are seeing too many young Australians in particular unable to enter the housing market and more needed to be achieved. So, yeah, I mean, as I say, we didn't expect to get a boost in the polls out of this. We did it to boost the number of young Australians getting a foothold on the housing market, and that's what we think that it will achieve.

SALLY SARA: The polling also showed 60 per cent of people thought it would either make no difference to housing or actually make the situation worse. Was it a mistake to sell these tax changes as housing policies when Treasury's own modelling suggests a minimal effect on the housing market? MURRAY WATT: Well, I don't believe that it is a minimal effect on the housing market to allow 75,000 more Australians in addition to those - SALLY SARA: Over a decade.

MURRAY WATT: Over a decade, but- I mean, that's a lot of people who otherwise would be unable to enter the housing market. I mean, I don't think that anyone listening to the program this morning would seriously think that the current situation can continue. As I say, we've invested about- and are investing about $47 billion in housing supply.

We have done everything we can to get more houses built, but that on its own hasn't been enough. So we could either sit back and allow the current situation to continue with too many Australians locked out of the housing market, especially younger Australians, or we could take some difficult decisions. Now, of course, it's our job to get out there and explain these decisions.

And I'm still finding there's lot of people who haven't heard that, for example, negative gearing that's already occurred is grandfathered so people can continue the arrangements they've got in place already. And of course, people will still be able to negatively gear new builds so that they're not only building their own wealth, but they're adding to the country's wealth as well.

So that's the job we've got ahead of us over the next few weeks and months is to explain these changes and demonstrate that they will allow more young Australians to get into the housing market when they've been shut out for far too long. SALLY SARA: How much do you think the broken promise on these tax changes will hurt the government? MURRAY WATT: Well, I mean, what we've said in the weeks leading up to the budget and, of course, over the last week is that if we change our position, we've got an obligation to explain that.

And again, if we think about the alternative, Sally, it's that we just leave things in place as they are, seeing more and more young Australians in particular shut out of the market, rents continuing to spiral and greater inequality in our society. And that's not what a Labor government is about. A Labor government is about making sure that we do have a more equal situation for younger Australians, older Australians.

I mean, I've seen some people try to make this a sort of a division between generations. Parents and grandparents want to see their kids and their grandkids be able to get a house. It's something that I was able to achieve in my early 30s.

I want to make sure that my kids can achieve that as well. And if that means us changing our position and then explaining why we've done that, then that's what we've got to do. SALLY SARA: On a separate issue, can you explain the government's thinking behind significant cuts in the budget to the national pest and weed control programs when the cost of getting biosecurity wrong can be huge for industry?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, I guess I reject the argument that some are making that we've made these savage cuts. When I was the agriculture minister, we significantly increased biosecurity funding. And that has been maintained and improved upon by Julie Collins now as the Agriculture Minister.

In my portfolio of Environment, we've managed in a difficult budget to extend funding for what's known as the Saving Native Species program for the next two years, and a substantial part of that investment goes towards removing invasive species, pests and weeds that are doing great damage to our environment. So as I say, even though it's been a difficult budget where we've had to find savings in my portfolio and other portfolios, we have continued significant funding towards that effort going forward.

SALLY SARA: Just finally, the government is trying to accelerate the construction of new homes by fast-tracking environmental approvals. Since the environmental law overhaul passed Parliament last year, has there been an increase in the number of homes approved? MURRAY WATT: Yes, I'm pleased to say there has, Sally.

I'm not sure if you remember, but when we had the Treasurer's Roundtable last year, we made a commitment to fast-track 26,000 housing approval applications that were in the system and had been jammed. We've already been able to clear 20,000 of those and we expect to get to the full 26,000 by July. So that's what we've been able to achieve even under the existing EPBC laws.

And, of course, those reforms that we passed at the end of last year, badly needed by the country, will speed up those processes even further, while of course maintaining strong environmental protections as well. SALLY SARA: Murray Watt, thank you for joining me this morning. MURRAY WATT: No worries.

Thanks, Sally. 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.