Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Shelter Executive Officer Peter McMillan breaks down the housing commitments in the Federal budget

Transcript

NT Shelter Executive Officer Peter McMillan breaks down the housing commitments in the Federal budget · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It was a lot of detail throwing through yesterday around
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the budget and use that a landmark agreement between every
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: level of government is going to aim to tackle Australia's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: housing affordability crisis by building one million new homes over
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: five years now. It's called the National Housing Accord and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the agreements designed to incentivize the construction of cheaper housing
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in popular regions. It's all supposed to start by twenty
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: twenty four. And much of Australia's housing affordability crisis has
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: been caused as well as a result of a lack
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of supply as a great number of prospective buyers compete
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: for some of those properties. But we've also got a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: situation here in the Northern Territory where there just isn't
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: enough affordable housing and enough housing across the board in
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways in public housing as well. Now
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: joining me in the studio to talk more about what
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: was announced when it comes to housing in the budget
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: in the Federal budget is Peter McMillan, the executive Officer
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of NT Shelter. Good morning to you, Peter, are you
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: really well, Thanks so much for your time this morning. Peter,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: talk us through what was announced in the budget when
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: it comes to this housing accord.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Firstly, yeah, well CADID there were a lot of positive
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: measures around housing, which is it's great to see. We
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: probably needed a budget like this with a focus on
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: housing around ten years ago, to be honest, but those
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: years have gone and we look forward from here in
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: seeing I guess more leadership at a commonwealth level around
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: a housing plan, a plan to address Australia's housing and
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: homelessess challenges, and as you point out, we certainly have
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: our share of those problems in the Northern territory. When
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: you're going into the budget, there are already commitments from
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the government to build thirty thousand social and affordable homes
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: over five years. That was a ten billion dollar commitment
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: and some of those houses were to go to women
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and children fleeing domestic family violence, around four thousand homes
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: out of that thirty which is very important of course,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and also to older women at risk of homelessness, and
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: also ten thousand affordable homes for frontline workers such as police,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: nurses and cleaners. That's Australia wide. I just want to
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: stress that we need now to really roll up the sleeves,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: be smart, about how we work together in the territory
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: to ensure that we get our fair share of loose
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: of spoils.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I think that that's such an incredibly important point to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: make because you know, sometimes you see these figures and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: you think, oh, that seems amazing, but then when you
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: talk about the Northern Territory having to fight for that share,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: it's not just a given, is it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: It's not a given at all. I mean, we all know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: those of us who live and work up here, know
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: the level of housing need that we have. I think
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: more people across Australia are starting to get a better
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: understanding of that. And in the last few months actually,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: there was a really important report handed down by the
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Productivity Commission which basically said that the funding that's distributed
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: for housing homelessness needs to be based on need rather
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: than population share. And that's music to our he is really,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that's what we've been saying for a long time. We
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: know we've got twelve times a rate of homelessness. That's
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: not something that you get taught about when you're living
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: down South, when you're at school. I had no idea
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: until you come up here and see it firsthand. The
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: levels of overcrowding and so there's a lot of work
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: to be done on housing as well. I think what's
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: important is building a population to support a forty billion
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: dollar economy by twenty thirty. When the government wants to
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: have a thirty billion dollar economy, that's kind of have
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a population of three hundred thousand. They reckon, that's twenty
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: percent more people than what we have now, and we
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: already struggle to house. Go anywhere near housing. Actually the
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: number of people we already have in the territory.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I think again, you know, you go, that's such an
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: important point because you think where are they going to live?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I think any conversation and I notice the Antimus are
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: starting a conversation on this. I believe a forum around
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: that twenty thirty forty billion dollar economy. I think it's
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: a very important community consultation and community conversation to have.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I think housing needs to be very much in the mix.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And now more Australians are talking about housing. They're realizing that,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you know, Australians want a budget that addresses their needs,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: whether it be around cost of living or around having
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: a place to live that's affordable. And governments right across
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Australia are now committed apparently to this accord, as you mentioned,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: and I just want to that was new news out
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: of the budget. An aspirational target of one million new
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: homes over the five years from twenty twenty four through
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: to twenty twenty nine. That's a big number. It actually
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: is the number of how if it was all social
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: and affordable it would be fantastic, and if it was
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: to be pulled off, it'll be huge. But I mean
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: it's an aspirational target. I'm not sure how many people
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: believe we're going to get close to that in those years.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: But what's important is we've got the Local Government Association
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: ALGA is party to this. We've apparently got all the
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: state and territory governments, and we've got institutional investors like
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: superannuation funds who have cash to spend, Katie on behalf
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: of their members. They want to get a return for
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: their superannuation members. What better placed than to put into
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: social affordable housing if they can get a modest but reasonable,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: predictable return, and then.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: How exactly would it work, Like we that housing accord,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: who's going to build the homes? Well?
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I think largely it's going to be a combination of
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Australian property sector, building construction sector with the community housing sector.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I would suspect we've talked before a bit about community
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: housing and a role that they play, the important role
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that they play in reinvesting profits back into building more housing.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: If we're talking about a million properties, that's a huge
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: amount of scale and I've got no doubt that there'd
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: be a community housing providers right across Australia now really
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I guess jumping at the bit to try and get
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: a share of that housing. It's going to be great
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: for their business, but also it will be great social
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: outcomes for Australians as well.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Peter, Look, I'm always a little bit skeptical. I think
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: it's part of my nature as a journalist and broadcaster.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: But I know this. You know, in recent years, Jacindra Durn,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister in New Zealand, had made significant announcements
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: around building public housing and around you know, the numbers
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of public housing homes that she would like to see
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: for those lower income or homeless. And really it's not
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: happened in New Zealand in recent years from what I
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: have read and what I can see. Do you think
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: we're really going to be able to do this.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I think it's good to be skeptical and always have
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: a degree of healthy skepticism. Kadie, There's no doubt about that.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I think it starts with a vision and leadership, and
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: that's what I think we saw in New Zealand in
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: terms of a statement that New Zealand's are a prosperous
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: country that can afford to do better in terms of housing.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: It's people. They haven't executed that well, and I think
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: we can learn from what they've done wrong. But I
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: think with any commitments we make in Australia, it's about
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: how fair income we are and as a team effort,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: it's going to require the states and territories to put
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: aside petty bickering that's been going on over the last
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: ten years round who's responsible for housing? Is it a
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: commonwealth responsibility, is it a take state and territory government responsible?
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And what role does local government playing this as well?
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: So we're better than that. We can move beyond that now,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and I think we are starting to see the leadership
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: to say we need institutional investment, we need local government,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: we need state and territory governments and the Commonwals government
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: to get this national problem resolved, and I think we
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: can make significant inroads, but by Gley, we're going to
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: need to really be smart up here and make sure
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that we can get some of that house and it's
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: on off. Of coursewever it's more jurisdiction, but we've got
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of need.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we certainly do. And much like I guess the
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: argument that we've been seeing nationally as well around domestic
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: violence is that you know, there's this real push from
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory that it not be on a per
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: capita base, but more so on a needs base. Do
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: you think that it should be similar when it comes
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to housing.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we've been saying that for years now and
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: it's very heartening to see that comes through and the
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: reporter refer to before agreement to that from the Productivity Commission.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: That's not going to automatically happen, though, Katie. We need
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: all the state and territory governments to say, look, we're
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: all Australians, we all deserve the same level of access
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to housing and to homelessness services as well. And it
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: makes of course it makes sense to rectify and have
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: funding based on need, but it is going to take
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the state and territory government treasurers and commonworth to agree
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: that we can redistribute funding based on need, just like
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: you know, doctor Shae Brown and others have been prosecuting
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: that case very effectively for domestic family violence services. We
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: couldn't agree more. It's exactly the same in homelessness.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Peter, just paint a picture for us right now about
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: how things are going in the Northern Territory when it
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: comes to the housing situation and homelessness. I think that
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of us can see the homelessness issues that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: we have got in the Northern Territory, but have we
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: got a situation as well where people are still finding
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: it really tough to find homes if they move here
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to work in different sectors. How tough is it at
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the moment?
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Look, it's extremely tough, and we put out a rental survey.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: We've had eighty one responses recently to that. We've been
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: checking with our member organizations as to what they're seeing
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: on the ground. They're saying it's incredibly it's incredibly tough.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: We've got a number of families that are sharing the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: same house, some are staying some women we know of
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: that are staying in domestic family violent shelters, of course
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: they can't afford the place in the private rental market.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Some that are staying with their X because they can't
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: afford to leave their X they haven't got anywhere where
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: they can live. And people that are also planning or
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: leave in the territory and are leaving in old Territory
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: because they simply can't find somewhere to live. Now, there
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: are different ways that we can, I guess try and
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: make some in rays on that problem, Katie. One is
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: in terms of the prices that that time tenants are
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: expected to pay for rent. And I think we need
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: to have a conversation in laws and territory as to
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: when the rental market is at such low vacancy rates,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: like maybe less than two percent, we need to look
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: at how we can apply a reasonable cap on rent increases.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You know, we've I've got a story here of family
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: that have been living in their place for four years
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: and authors all of a sudden overnight, they've had the
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: rent basically put up by one hundred and fifty dollars
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: and the landlord said it was a forty percent increase.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: And the landlord said we'll have. If you don't like it,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: move on, and the tendant say, well, you know, can't
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: risk saying not to that and ending up homeless because
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: there's nowhere else to be and and you know, all
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: the viewings are so competitive, so you know, we need,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I think to have a think about that. You know,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: as a landlord myself, I think we all want to
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: try and get good rent and market rent. I get that,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: but when you've got basically nothing in the market to rent,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's reasonable to say, look, what are we
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: trying to achieve here, and is it fair to kick
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: out a family. Of course they can't afford one hundred
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: and forty hundred and fifty dollars a week increase when
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: they've been good tenants and making the territory their home.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yet I think we can do. Which didn't happen in
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the government government's budget which was disappointing was the Treasurer
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: himself noted that rents have gone through the roof and
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: there hasn't been any cost of living adjustment for renters.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And so while all the housing is incredibly important and welcome,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: it's what's happening right now with further price cost of
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: living increases projected through gas electricity rises. There's a lot
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: of people very stressed about the cost of living.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Even when you look at the CPI from yesterday, the
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: ABS releasing those figures and seven percent for us here
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in Darwin, that cost of living is you know, it's
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: astronomical for so many people right now.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: It is. It's causing a lot of anxiety. And when
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: you hear that inflation hasn't even piqued it and interest
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: rates high for people with a mortgage or people trying
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: to repay alone, then yeah, it's a very very tough
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: time out there and I think the next budget next
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: year we'll need to continue that conversation around what we
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: can do to ease cost of living burdens in the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: meantime until all this additional housing supply comes online.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Peter, I've only got about thirty seconds. But you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: for the territory government, is it, you know, is the
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: message that they really need to be pushing as hard
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: as possible to the feeds at this point to get
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: our share.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So the media release that was issued by the
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Chief Minister and Minister Law was very positive about the budget.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: They said they've been advocating for a lot of those things,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: including housing. It was in the budget, but we can't
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: declare victory yet. We have to now basically be business ready.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: We have to have our sorry, we have to be
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: shovel ready. We have to have these projects ready to go,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: we have to have a business cases ready to go,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: and we have to fight for the territory, no doubt
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: about that.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Well, Peter McMillan from Mt. Shelter, we always appreciate your time.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for coming on this morning and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: having a chat with us.