Transcript - Doorstop at Seaton High School, Adelaide

E&OE

MARK BUTLER: I’m Mark Butler, the Member for Hindmarsh in the Federal Parliament and I’m delighted to be here with a couple of really old friends and colleagues – Catherine King, the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, and Nick Champion who is the South Australian Minister for Housing – to talk about a really striking example of great cooperation between our two levels of government. So, I’ll hand over to my colleague, Catherine King.

CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Thanks very much, Mark. And it’s terrific to be here at Seaton alongside Mark and Nick as well to talk about the partnership between the Albanese Labor Government to get more housing built here in South Australia more quickly. Today we’re announcing, as part of the Housing Support Program, priority work streams over – just on $70 million coming here into South Australia to build the infrastructure to get these houses built more quickly. This partnership with the South Australian Government means that we can deliver over 4,000 homes with this infrastructure money. 

This infrastructure money goes to things like sewer connections, water connections and road connections to really get these developments on track more quickly. Here behind us, we’ve got the start of a development. This is getting even bigger with over 1,400 homes over – a number of them are also part of the Social Affordable Housing, over 200 of those as part of this development behind here. 

This investment is part of the Albanese Labor Government’s $32 billion housing investment to really ensure that we increase supply. We know that we need to do that in order to make sure we can house the populations of the future, get young people the opportunity to get into their first home, make sure that we’ve got enough rental accommodation right the way across this country. We’re leaving no stone unturned when it comes to really delivering on this housing agenda and it’s really terrific to be able to announce this $70 million alongside a partnership with the South Australian Government. 

I do want to thank Nick Champion for working so closely with us to make sure that we’re not just announcing funding today. This funding is then immediately going into the ground, delivering housing and delivering that infrastructure to bring those housing – houses both to market and those social and affordable homes as well. Nick. 

NICK CHAMPION [SA HOUSING MINISTER]: Thanks, Catherine. Well, if you go north or south or in the city or out here in the west, the Albanese Government is providing money for infrastructure that will unlock housing in our city, and that’s absolutely critical. We know we’re in a housing crisis and we know the only thing that resolves that housing crisis is supply. So, it’s just great to partner with the Albanese Labor Government. It’s really critical that we have a willing partner in the national government. They’re absolutely critical to providing this housing on the ground. And I’d really like to thank both Mark and Catherine for this really important funding today.

CATHERINE KING: Happy to take questions. Where do you want to go first? 

JOURNALIST: This one’s for yourself? On the PropTrack data that was released today, median house prices are soaring. What’s your take on all of that? 

NICK CHAMPION: Well look, one of the only policy responses you can have to increases in rents or increases in prices is more supply, more housing. And we know that’s really critically important because we know the composition of society is changing. We’ve got more single parent- single person households; we’ve got more constellation families; we’ve got more people coming to the state because it’s a vibrant economy and so we’ve got to build more houses. And it’s absolutely essential that supply is the policy answer. 

And so, that’s why we’re unlocking housing at Noarlunga, 660 houses there; 1,300 here at Seaton; housing at Prospect Corner; at Playford Alive a whole range of projects across the city in order to put supply into the market, to put people into their first home or allow them to upgrade into their second home. 

JOURNALIST: Is that the first time we’ve surpassed Melbourne for the median house price? Do you see that as a cash [indistinct]? I mean, it’s good for home owners, but people trying to get into the market. 

NICK CHAMPION: That’s right. We want to make sure that the next generation of young professionals, of working class people can get their foot on the property market, get their first home. And so that’s why we’ve got Shared Equity Loans through HomeStart South Australia, that’s why we’ve got the Affordable Sale Program; that’s why we’re building more public housing here; and, why we want to see more affordable rental in the system as well. 

JOURNALIST: Are you- I mean, the data itself did mention that supply was up at the end of spring, but that’s still being absorbed. Is that [indistinct] you were kind of speaking about [indistinct]?

NICK CHAMPION: Well, we need constant supply over a long time to make sure that the industry ramps up to provide that supply. You won’t fix this with one development – you fix this with many developments with a strong pipeline of housing. It’s one of the things that the Commonwealth Government is helping us with today, Albanese Government contributing infrastructure for sewer and water at places like West End, at Noarlunga, at Playford Alive and here in Seaton.

JOURNALIST: Just on those, the median house price for Australia, [indistinct] housing as well, what would your message be to first home buyers? 

CATHERINE KING: Well as I said, we’re leaving no stone unturned to really get supply moving right the way across the country. And that’s what these investments today are about, getting that money into infrastructure immediately so that we can get supply moving; say, to state governments and to developers that money is available, you can actually now unlock some of that land that people might have been sitting on for a while waiting to see what happened; but, really de-risking that and getting those housing supply. 

We’ve got a range of measures that we have got through the Parliament – obviously, the Help to Buy, the Build to Rent scheme, the First Homeowners Guarantee that Minister Clare O’Neil is working so hard on. It amounts to over $32 billion that the Commonwealth has really stepped into this space because we know that housing supply is critical. It’s critical for making sure that we’ve got rental available for people, but also providing that opportunity for young people to get into the housing market in the first place. And, as Minister Champion says, it’s really about that long-term supply. You can’t just stop and start this. You’ve got to have that – be in there for the long haul to get that investment so that we can actually make sure that everybody has the opportunity to have the Australian dream of owning a home.

JOURNALIST: And these areas here, so in Seaton and Thebarton, what made them, I guess, earmarked for the Federal Government? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, the thing that’s been really good about this is it’s very much a partnership. We’ve made the money available but said to state governments: where can you deliver now? Where can you actually unlock those houses immediately so we’re not waiting a few years? That you’re actually getting that development, getting the ground dug up, getting the sewer pipes in, getting that water. And so the state governments have identified where that land and where that development is. These developments, without this money, might have been a few years down the track, but this is really bringing them forward, making sure that we’re getting that supply moving straight away.

JOURNALIST: Just on track, how are we on track with all the [indistinct]?

CATHERINE KING: Well, we’re very confident that that investment is going to be unlocking housing. My part of the responsibility is on the infrastructure. We’ve got over $1.5 billion on the table with state and territory governments and local governments. One of the things we’ve done here in South Australia with the first stream of the Housing Support Program is if you don’t have town planners in your councils, you can’t actually plan to bring new land on. So, we’ve invested, alongside with Flinders University, to actually re-establish a Town Planning Course in South Australia. 

So, as I said, we’re not leaving anything unturned, we’re not leaving any stone unturned. So, from planning, planning reforms, working with state governments, investing money, all of those things are really, really important to bringing that on. And that’s really what’s part of the National Accord, to bring those 1.2 billion – sorry, million homes on track. 

JOURNALIST: And since that policy came out in the last election, how many have we built? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, certainly in terms of Minister O’Neil’s, we’ve already started. We’re seeing, obviously, the Home Guarantee; a number of homes have already been developed and built across the entire marketplace. I’ll leave Minister O’Neil to talk about her part of the portfolio. But the infrastructure investment we’re making, you’ll see that unlocking of over 1,000 homes here in this region in the not too distant future. 

JOURNALIST: And what’s your take on Adelaide surpassing Melbourne that you’ve seen? 

CATHERINE KING: [Laughs] As a Victorian you can ask me that. I think Adelaide’s a beautiful place to live. I think Victoria is a lovely place to live as well. I was just commenting to my staff this morning, it is a really – I think you’ve been a bit of a hidden gem and you might see lots of people being interested in the market here. It is a beautiful place to live. But really, what we want to do is make sure right the way across the country, whether you’re in the regions, whether you’re in the cities, whether you’re here in South Australia or in Victoria, that people can get access to affordable rental and to their first home opportunities.