FiveAA radio with Graeme Goodings

GRAEME GOODINGS: But before that, I welcome to the studio Catherine King, Minister for infrastructure, transport, Regional Development and Local Government. That’s a mouthful – Catherine, good morning. Welcome.

CATHERINE KING: It’s a long title. It is – very much. Lovely to be with you on this incredibly hot day.

GRAEME GOODINGS: It is, isn’t it?

CATHERINE KING: It sure is.

GRAEME GOODINGS: And that creates problems in another area that doesn’t affect you. When a minister comes to town, we know it’s going to be some good news. So why are you here?

CATHERINE KING: Well, I’m announcing a couple of things today. The first is, alongside the South Australian Government, just on $70 million for infrastructure to bring on new housing here in South Australia. We know that the supply of housing has been really constrained across the country. And one of the reasons that councils and developers and state governments are struggling is that just getting that money for the infrastructure. So today, we’re announcing money to do the Curtis Road-Heaslip Road roundabout in Angle Vale, so that’ll unlock 700 homes. Up at the former West End Brewery site, there’s to be 1,000 homes built there, so we’re funding the infrastructure to bring that online. Two hundred of them will be social housing, so that’s a – really important to bring that into the mix, affordable housing for people. Down at Noarlunga we’re funding some water and sewerage works, again to bring on another 164 affordable homes, so that’s going to be important. And at Seaton, water and sewer works to unlock just over 1000 homes – which again, just getting that infrastructure in place, giving that helping hand the Federal Government wants to do to really start to get building happening, because we really need to make sure that we’re providing the housing for our future generations.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Is this a joint project with the State Government?

CATHERINE KING: Yes, it is with the State Government. We’re in fact actually providing the funding, but they’ve got to do the delivery. So the money is handed over to them, and they’re the sites that they’ve selected as the most viable in terms of bringing housing to market more quickly.

GRAEME GOODINGS: How long was the lead up time on this? You know, can we see new housing within the foreseeable future? Two, three years? How far away?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, absolutely. In terms of the investment – so this really unlocks – so the planning approvals, all of that work the State Government has either well underway or nearing conclusion. And what happens then is this money then puts the infrastructure in, and that provides an incentive for both the public and the private sector to say, well, actually, we don’t have to pay for those costs. We can actually bring this project to market much more quickly. And really, that’s what this is about, is getting those houses built as quickly as we possibly can in good, well located locations, close to good connections, close to public transport for people, and really just getting those [indistinct]. So it’s over – well over 3,000 homes will be delivered just with this $70 million in infrastructure that we’re putting in.

GRAEME GOODINGS: So Canberra’s putting up the money. Is there any further involvement from the Federal Government, or is it now all in the State Government’s hands?

CATHERINE KING: Well, the State Government will need to do the delivery. We obviously will keep an eye on it because that’s what I like to do when we’re putting taxpayer money into things, but also making sure that that investment does get delivered. There’s other programs, of course, that the State Government is applying for at the moment. There’s a Housing Support Program Stream 2, and those applications are before me shortly. And there may be some in South Australia – I don’t know yet. I’ll do those assessments a little bit later when I get them.

GRAEME GOODINGS: It sounds like good news. You said there’s a second reason you’ve come to Adelaide.

CATHERINE KING: The second reason is, one of the things that when we came to government was really noticeable is that while there’d been regional grants programs, and they’re really important for our regional areas, our suburbs are really groaning with lack of infrastructure as well, particularly that community and social infrastructure. And there’s a real deficit – you can go to some suburbs and you see fantastic sporting facilities, great aquatic centres and really good infrastructure. And then you’ve got often in our poorer suburbs just not really that investment has been made. So we’re announcing the successful projects for Thriving Suburbs, which is a program the Albanese Labor Government initiated when we first got into office. And so one of them that I’ll be out – and I’ll be announcing the rest of them – is the Noarlunga pool, which I understand has been a really longstanding problem to give upgrades to that. So I’m out there with Amanda Rishworth announcing that, alongside a few other Thriving Suburbs programs just to really get that community, sporting, arts infrastructure back into our communities, and particularly in suburbs that may not have seen that investment for a while.

GRAEME GOODINGS: So how did you decide on the suburbs? Did they apply for grants or put forward ideas?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah. So this has been an open competitive process. So we had applications come in for this program right the way around the country. I’m just announcing the South Australian ones today. And what’s happened then is our business grants hub’s done an assessment, my department’s done an assessment, and a panel of MPs which came from across the political spectrum then did an assessment. Department made recommendations to me, and I’ve basically just funded everything that was recommended to me.

GRAEME GOODINGS: So how long is the roll out for this?

CATHERINE KING: So we’ll do that this week. But in terms of the delivery of the programs, again, largely they are partnerships with local councils. That money also does come via the State Government, so really it will be up to councils when they can sign the contracts – go out for tender. So things like we’ll be announcing today, there’s the Regal Theatre precinct. So the Regal Theatre I know has been wanting to get disability access. We’ll be announcing that today, as well as the Noarlunga pool and a few others which I’ll keep up my sleeve as a surprise for when I make the announcement later today.

GRAEME GOODINGS: It sounds very positive. There’s no question about that. Is this – it’s coincidental that we’re approaching an election?

CATHERINE KING: No, not at all. I think the – I mean, it isn’t coincidental. This is just the timing of the program and the rollout. So it’s taken us now to do the assessments, and this is now where we’re ready to make those announcements. I would have liked to have done them much earlier, to be honest. But what we learn in government is things take a little longer than I would always like. But no, not at all.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Minister, if I could talk to you on a couple of other issues…

CATHERINE KING: Of course.

GRAEME GOODINGS: … something that as the Minister for Transport – I’m reading through your portfolios here, it’s a wonder you have time to do anything. Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. On the area of transport, regarding aviation, are you aware that there are nine international flights or carriers that have direct flights into Adelaide, and not one of them is our national carrier, Qantas?

CATHERINE KING: Well, that’s frustrating, and Qantas should do better in that regard. The beauty that Adelaide has is you’re what’s called a secondary airport, so there are no constraints on international carriers coming in here. I got in really late last night. I just managed to get in before the curfew because of the incredible delays that were happening, because of Sydney. And when Sydney crashes, the whole network crashes, and we’re actually trying to do something about that. We passed legislation just in the last days of Parliament that actually means that Sydney can have a recovery period to when it’s – there’s been weather like that. So will help the whole network. But Adelaide is an airport where it’s not restricted in terms of the number of international flights that can come in, and I think it would be great if Qantas did come here. I know the State Government has been trying to encourage international carriers. I see Qatar’s back. They were flying out just – we were delayed on the tarmac as they were flying out. So hopefully people are going off to a wonderful holiday somewhere and great destinations across the world. But yes, it would be great to see more, and happy to work with the State Government on that. But you don’t have any restrictions, so international carriers can come here. Really, it’ll be based on demand as to why they make those decisions.

GRAEME GOODINGS: I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, had a very strong relationship – working with Alan Joyce. And that all turned sour, of course, but it would seem that the – surely the Government can some put some pressure on Qantas and say, you know, really should step up to the plate.

CATHERINE KING: Well, certainly I’ll raise it with them. I met with Qantas just last week to hear they are bringing more capacity back into the network, and that’s an important thing that they’ve been doing. Virgin obviously now is also looking to partner with Qatar internationally as well, and that might provide some opportunities as well. Of course, these are privately owned companies that are responsible for making money and that’s what they will focus on. But I do also think particularly given Qantas is – they have to be 51 per cent Australian-owned, so they have to have that Australian ownership. It would be great to see them here and I’m very happy to raise it with them, and I’m sure the South Australian Government has been doing the same.

GRAEME GOODINGS: I mean, it is frustrating and an embarrassment. I mean, Adelaide Airport has won awards over the recent years for the best airport in Australia. We are a thriving mecca – alright, smaller than the main capitals – but to be serviced by Air New Zealand, Fiji Airways, Malaysia, Qatar, Emirates, Singapore, and people say, what about Qantas? Well, I mean, once upon a time, I remember being in Los Angeles and had been over there for some time, and went to the airport and saw a Qantas plane, and the heart started pumping and the feelings of home and the love and the passion. And Qantas was a carrier that we could be proud of. Sadly, I don’t think people feel that about Qantas any longer.

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, well, I think they’ve got a bit of work to do. They’ve got a new chair and a new board. John Mullen is the new chair. He’s a terrific Australian, and I think they’ve spent a lot of time concentrating on what went wrong. I think in terms of the – you know, they took their eye off the ball as to who they were there for in terms of customers, and I think they would say that themselves. And so, they’ve got a lot of work to do, and maybe this can be one of the things of goodwill coming back into South Australia. So let’s- I think it sounds like, Graeme, you’re about to start a bit of a campaign. Qantas back into Adelaide Airport – sounds like a good thing to me.

GRAEME GOODINGS: We’re speaking with Catherine King, the minister for everything.

[Laughter]

I just can’t remember [indistinct].

CATHERINE KING: I know. It’s too long. It is busy, and I do have some fabulous junior ministers who are under me who also help with it. It is a big job.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Let’s stay in the transport area, but out of the air and onto the ground. The state of our national roads and railways, we keep getting plenty of calls. And it’s – you know, South Australia is not an orphan here. The state of the national roads and highways is really a disgrace.

CATHERINE KING: Well, one of the things that really shocked me when I came to government, I’ve got responsibility for this thing called the National Land Transport Network, which is really the big connecting roads. And I didn’t realise that the previous government had frozen indexation for maintenance funding for that road. They froze it back in 2013. It was a cut. And so that was hundreds of millions of dollars that was not provided by the Commonwealth for road maintenance, and that- like, that is really quite shocking to me. So what we did when we came to office, we’ve had to renegotiate a new agreement with the states and territories. I’ve re-indexed the road maintenance funding and I’ve backdated it. So I’ve caught up for all those years that – where it was cut. And so, more money from the Commonwealth is now going to the state governments for road maintenance.

The other thing I also did is I’ve doubled the amount of money,  $1 billion every single year comes from the Commonwealth to every single local council, so I’m doubling the Roads to Recovery – so that’s for those local roads – again, because they’re the roads people travel on all the time. We’re also investing in big projects here. Obviously, the North-South Corridor is a pretty big project. It’s one of the biggest road projects in the country, so being built here in Adelaide, and we’re always working with the State Government.

Of course I’d love to fund everything, but we can’t. We’ve got to do that sensibly alongside where the workforce is up to. But they’re the investments we’re making. But that freezing, frankly, of Federal Government road maintenance funding really was, frankly, an appalling thing to have done, and we cannot let them get away with that. So we’ve fixed that, but we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and I know for many people on local roads that road maintenance is really, really important.

GRAEME GOODINGS: So where does funding sit at the moment? You’ve unfrozen funds, but is it 50-50 between the Commonwealth and the states?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah. So we do that- so the convention sort of – and again, it’s not in law. The convention sort of, when I first started doing my job over – well over 20 years ago now, was that the Commonwealth didn’t fund anything much in the cities. It didn’t fund public transport, didn’t really fund any of the suburban roads or any of those things. It really just did those national highways. And so the Commonwealth, though, now is funding much more in the urban area than it ever has before. So what we’ve decided to do is- and so, the previous government had sort of 80-20 for regional roads, but if you look at the split, it’s all over the place. You can do 60-40 on some.

So we’ve basically said, look, now that the Commonwealth is investing much more in the suburbs, and that’s really important that we do do that. We’re investing a lot more in public transport. As I said, Commonwealth used to never do that at all. And that means we’re now saying let’s share the responsibility. We share the risk. Same amount of money available, so our investment pipeline still sits at about $125 billion over the 10-year period. Same amount of money – we’re just asking states to lift their contribution in the regions as well so we can do with more with the money that we’ve got.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Our Premier, Peter Malinauskas, has in fact said there should be capacity for the Commonwealth to offer more support than 50-50.

CATHERINE KING: Well, I would always like to go to my Treasurer and say I would like lots more money to be available for road infrastructure, but of course, there are lots of demands on the Commonwealth budget, from the disability support program to pensions to aged care – all of those things that are really important that we fund. I’ll, of course, argue the case always that infrastructure is the most important, but that is always the way. We have increased the amount of money the Commonwealth is spending on infrastructure, and I’m really proud of the work that we do with the South Australian Government in that regard.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Minister, going back to the subject, we’ve got a text: “hi, ask the Minister whether the new houses will impact our water supply issue in South Australia”.

CATHERINE KING: Yeah. So part of the planning work that has to be done for bringing on these is that you do need to make sure, obviously, that the connectivity to water is important. But obviously, in terms of the security of supply, and that really is a matter of the State Government as part of the planning for bringing these houses on, because that can be a constraint in some areas as well. So the State Government will have thought through all of those issues. And what we’re doing is getting that connecting infrastructure, whether it’s the sewerage, the water, or the roads, to actually help connect those into the main systems.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Well, Minister, you’ve got a busy day ahead. Thank you for dropping in this morning.

CATHERINE KING: It’s so lovely to be here in your beautiful state.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Yeah. Enjoy your rest of your day.

CATHERINE KING: I will do. Thank you so much.

GRAEME GOODINGS: And where are you off to, Noarlunga?

CATHERINE KING: I’m going to Noarlunga and- but I’m going to the old brewery site first. So I’ve got a stand-up with the South Australian Planning Minister and Minister Butler as well to have a chat about that first.

GRAEME GOODINGS: Catherine King, thank you so much for your time today.

CATHERINE KING: Really good to be with you. 

GRAEME GOODINGS: That’s the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King.