Latest / She's On The Money / “Can I Actually Afford My Life Right Now?” We Put Australia’s Ministers In The Hot Seat

Transcript

“Can I Actually Afford My Life Right Now?” We Put Australia’s Ministers In The Hot Seat · She's On The Money

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my friends, A welcome to She's on the Money.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I am Victoria to Vine and around here. We are
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: all about making money a little less overwhelming. We have
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a community of more than three hundred thousand people. We
• 0:11
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• 0:15
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• 0:18
  Speaker 1: in control of your financial future.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: My name's Satasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: and I'm here to acknowledge country. Hello, beautiful friends, we
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: all that you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country,
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• 0:52
  Speaker 3: for you to thrive.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Budget, a limited
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: series where we take you behind the twenty twenty six
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven federal budget so that you can sound
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: smarter at the water cooler, in the group chat, or
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: while spiraling over property prices on real estate dot com
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: dot a you at eleven PM. I'm your host, Victoria Devine,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and after spending the day inside Budget lock up at
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Parliament House, reading through hundreds of pages of announcements, spin
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and economic jargon, we reached out to ministers, crossbenches and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: key political voices from across the Budget conversation to ask
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the questions our community actually wants answered. In this episode,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I've put some of our ministers in the hot seed
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to ask questions that our community has and genuinely cares about.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I sat down with the Minister for Housing Claire O'Neill,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibasek, Minister for Infrastructure Catherine King,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, and Independent
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: MP doctor Manique Ryan to unpack what this budget actually
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: means for Australians trying to buy homes, pay bills, build
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: wealth and survive the cost of living crisis with at
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: least some scary good dignity remaining intact. Because Budget Night
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: might be technically about the economics, but for most Australians
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: it's actually about one thing. Can I really afford my
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: life right now? So join me as we put ministers
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and independence to the test and hear about our government's
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: ongoing investment into women. Claire, welcome to She's on the money.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: For those of you who maybe haven't met Claire online before,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Claire is Australia's Minister for Housing. She's also the Minister
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: for Homelessness and the Minister for Cities, meaning she's i
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: would say, one of the key people who is shaping
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the government's response to the housing crisis, affordability and rental
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: pressures at the moment that a lot of our community
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: are facing and kind of struggling with. And I feel
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: like a lot of us are grappling with what the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: new budget means and how that works for us. Also,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: before politics, you worked as a lawyer and a management consultant,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: so you're kind of really knowledge in this space, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you've also become one of, i would say, one of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the government's most visible voices on housing reform, migration and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: economic policy. And I'm just so excited to finally get
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you in the hot seat.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to talk to you, Victoria.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I love what you do and especially.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Empowering women around Australia to get them into a good
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: financial situation.
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: So I'm thrilled to be talking to you.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Really hard. I feels get into it is so huge
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: in common And yesterday you came into our lock up
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to have a chat with us, but I was floundering
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: around outside with somebody else doing content and I missed
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. So could you give me a really
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: quick summary of you know why you came in to
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: have a chat with the content creators and I guess
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: your key headlines of what the budget means for us.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I came to talk to the content creators because
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: I really want Australians to understand why we have such
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: chronic problems with housing. For everyone who's listening, they're probably,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: you know, struggling to get into the house market, seeing
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: their rents going up, worried about that increasing population of
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: homeless that they probably see in parks and streets around
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: their suburb, and wondering why is this all happening. So
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: there's one really important reason this has been building up
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: over forty years in our country, and the big issue
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: is that for that forty years, we have not been
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: building enough homes. So we in Australia today have a
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: supply shortage and the best way for us to get
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: out of what's going on in housing is to build, build, built,
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: and that's why the majority of the activities of the
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: government are focused on trying to get home building moving.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: If we're building more homes, then housing becomes more affordable
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: for everyone. So the budget last night was pro supply.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: It will mean that we build more homes for the country.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: But the other thing we were tackling is this really
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: unfair situation that has put investors on a higher level
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: than first home buyers. Now, we support people investing in property.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: It's not that you're doing anything wrong. It's really a
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: question of who the government should be backing in. We've
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: got young people, young women who feel that there's a
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: housing system stacked against them, and we want your listeners
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: to get ahead, and we want them particularly to get
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: into home ownership. So last night was about leveling that
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: playing field, getting seventy five thousand Australians out of renting
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: and into home ownership, and putting a fairer system in
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: place for everyone going forward.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Now, I haven't had enough time to pour over the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: budget in the way that you have. I feel like
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I've had a couple of hours and I've been scrambling
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: to get my content together.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I don't know how you guys do it. We have
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: weeks and money don't think about this, We don't hopefully,
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: And I'm really excited you're looking really.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Fresh giving that it's like having looked at the budget.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Obviously we are, you know, pegging back the investors a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: little bit. But when I look into it the economy,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: it's not stacked in our favor to get into being
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a homeowner. So if we're pegging back investors, is that
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: going to mean that there are less rental properties on
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the market for us to rent? Therefore, is rent going
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to then go up? I've just extrapolating it out in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: my head. Is then rent going to go up and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it be harder to get into the market, making home
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: ownership sexier but also even more out of reach.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: So I really understand the question you're asking, and the
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: way that these reforms have been balanced is that we
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: get lots of new homeowners seventy five thousand renters becoming homeowners,
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: but we only see a very minor impact on rents
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: of about two dollars a week. So why do we
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: see that effect? Because we are allowing people who have
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: existing negative gearing arrangements in place to keep those arrangements,
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: so if we were to change that, we probably would
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: see investors take their properties out of the rental market.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: We're leaving that as it is because those investors had
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: particular conditions promised to them and we shouldn't we shouldn't
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: back away from that. So because of that, we're not
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: going to see a big drop off in rentals in
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: the market. And remember that you can still access those
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: property tax concessions for listeners who want to do that.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: What we're asking is that if you want to get
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: access to those tax concessions, help us with our national
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: challenge of building more homes for the country. So you
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: can get access to those concessions, but we want you
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: to buy into a new home. The old system allowed
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: these big tax concessions even for investors who were buying
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: existing properties, and that has helped drive property prices up
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: and also created a situation where at every auction we've
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: had investors who are using these tax breaks, but first
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: time buyers who weren't getting the help that they deserved.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: So just quickly we're coming in behind first home buyers.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: The five percent deposit programs made a massive difference to
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: the chances for young people. Now, we're also leveling that playing.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Field, which I think is very sexy, but at the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: same time it's just so rough. Like I speak to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the average shees on the money listener and my community
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: member and they'll say something along the lines of Victoria,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I went to university, still got some heckstat, I've got
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a really good job. You know, I am in a
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: position where I'm not single, I've even got a duel
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: income household, and we still can't purchase a home. How
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: do we deal with that? And we meant to change
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: our mindsets completely around the hope of one day meaning
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: our own home, or is it realistic to think that
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: we'll still get in the door in the same way
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: we always did.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, really fair question. And you know, to those young people,
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: let me just be really direct. The situation they're facing
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: today is unfair. When I look at the housing opportunity
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: of their parents and grandparents, it was radically different to
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: what's faced today.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: And I'll just share one fact with you.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: For a low income young couple in our country, they
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: are almost half as likely to own a home today
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: than they were in the year I was born. And
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: that's the thing that keeps me up at night as
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: Housing Minister. So our government is doing everything that we
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: can to turn that around for people. Now it's not
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: going to change overnight, but remember we're making already a
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: really meaningful difference to this. That five percent deposit program
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: has got two hundred and forty thousand Australians into their
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: first home. We've got help to Buy, which is another
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: program I'd love to talk to your listeners about it.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: So the viable option for a lot of people.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: Now we're also leveling that playing field and getting in
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: another seventy five thousand people into home ownership. That reverses
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: a decade of decline in the home ownership rate in
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: our country. So I'd say to people who are listening
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: who are stressing about this, I really get it. This
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: is what motivates me and drives me in politics. You've
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: got the government on your side here fighting for you.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: And by the way, you know these things that we're doing,
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: five percent deposit program, the level playing field, These are
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: fights like there are a lot of people in politics
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: who don't want us to make these shifts towards first
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: home buyers, but we strongly believe that we should have
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: a country where ordinary people can get their stake and
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: grow their wealth and have stability for their family, and
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: don't give up on that dream. There are programs available
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: to help you, and our government is backing you in
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: one hundred percent.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I don't know if you know this about me,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: but I own a mortgage break bridge in Melbourne, and
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I have six mortgage brokers that work for me, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: we do this day in day out. The five percent
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: deposit scheme is so popular in our like in our business.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Tell me what help to Buy does and how that
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: can help our community. And then I know we're running
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: out of time. But I then want to touch on
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: single women.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: Okay, great.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I feel like they are often left out of the equation.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: They're often left out of the conversation. And I did
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: a quick control f the second I got my little
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: mits on that budget and it said nothing about seeing women.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: So let's come to that consists. Actually, that's really often
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: at the forefront of our minds when we're thinking about housing.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: So we'll come to that just briefly for your listeners.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: For your listeners, if you are trying to get into
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: the housing market, there's two programs that I want you
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: to have a look at. There's a really good website
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: first Time Buyers dot gov today. You have a look
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: and you'll be able to easily see what you're eligible for.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: The first is a five percent deposit program, So go
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: one of the days we're saving for eleven years for
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: a twenty percent deposit. This can bring your savings back
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: to two to three years, where you're getting eight years
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: now where you get to pay off your own mortgage,
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: not someone else's. It's tremendously popular for a good reason.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: The second program is something called help to Buy. This
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: is really targeted at those families who are going to
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: really struggle to get into the housing market. Even under
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: something like the five percent deposit program, the Commonwealth government
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: actually comes in and pays thirty or for a new
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: bill forty percent of the purchase price, and we are
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: effectively your partners.
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: In owning that home.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: So you stick, you get into the property market with
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: the government, and over time you can either pay the
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: government back or when you sell your home you can
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: pay the government back. So this is a fantastic program.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: The majority of people who are using that program are
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: single people. Because if we think we've got challenges when
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: you're in a couple. Buying a home when you're on
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: a single income in this country is no mean feat.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: And this is a great option for people who are
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: listening who might be on that lower end to the
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: income spectrum and just feeling hopeless about it. Check out
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: this program.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: It's fantastic.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and let's touch on single women specifically. You and
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I both know that that is the number one demographic
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of women experiencing homelessness over the age of fifty five,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: which breaks my heart every single time. But there is
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: a rising trend in women just choosing to be single.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: And I kind of love this because on the flip side, like,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I'm clearly all for women empowerment, and I'm clearly all
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for you know, being who you want to be, but sorry,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: more women not settling for less I love to see it.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: But on the.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Flip side, now we're settling for less money as well.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And therefore the decisions we're making to be empowered and
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you know, have freedom of choice and not settle for
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a man who's not going to serve us is now
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: going to impact our ability to retire. It's going to
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: impact our ability to create wealth.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, would you do well? Firstly, what an important question.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: And I can tell you Victoria, I was raised by
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: a single mum and the icon she is an icon
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: every regard, but she jummed into me from the day
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: I was born that women need to be financially independent
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: and so I am right there with you. So a
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: lot of the government's work is focused on or thinking
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: about single women or single mums. I mentioned the five
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: percent deposit program. You can actually get access to that
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: program at two percent deposit if you are a single parent.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: So that is really thinking particularly about our restarters. Our
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: women who perhaps were in a marriage potentially scale back
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: work to care for kids, don't have much super don't
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: have a great work history because their work has been
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: in the family home, and suddenly find themselves, maybe in
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: their forties, single without knowing that they would be, and
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: they need a chance to build a financial future. So
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: this is a great option for them. I mentioned help
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: to Buy. I really want people to google that program
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: and have a look. It's a fantastic way to get
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: into the market. And then the final thing I want
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: to mention is we haven't talked much about this today,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: but our government has an absolutely massive agenda in building
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: social and affordable homes and crisis accommodation for women who
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: are in need.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: So this is.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Something that governments used to do a lot of back
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: in the fifties and sixties, but for seventy years the
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: Commonwealth basically step further and further away from rolling up
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: our sleeves and building homes. We're changing that. We're building
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: fifty five thousand social and affordable homes, and many of
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: those homes I knew, crisis beds for women and children
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: playing family violence. This is a really important part of
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: our housing agenda that people don't honestly pay a lot
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: of attention to intend to do. I get a lot
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: of challenges getting media interested in this. For me, it's
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: one of the most passionate parts of my job. We
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: need to provide housing for everyone in our country, and
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: there are just many families who are going to need
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: extra support and assistance, and our government is making sure
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: that they get it.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a really good place I think to
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: land it. But I want to ask you, and I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: asked Katie this, yes today, d I said, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: worst case scenario labors out next election, what are you
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: most proud of to have achieved in your term.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I want to mention two things. The first is the
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: first home buyers that I get to meet whose lives
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: have been changed. It's an amazing experience that I get
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: to talk to people who they often say to me
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: things like they didn't know they were carrying around this
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: stress and anxiety with them until they stepped into a
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: home that they owned, and how transformative that sense of
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: peace that they got was. So that would be the first.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: But the second thing is domestic violence housing. We live
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: in a country today with a domestic violence crisis where
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: women tell us that one of the main reasons they
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: don't leave a violent partner is because they can't get
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: stable housing to go to and that should not be
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: happening in a country like Australia. So we're making huge inroads.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: And every time I visit a shelter and speak to
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: women and children who are safe because of something our
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: government did, OH carry that with me forever.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to She's on the money.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: It's such a pleasure to be with you.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I am going to introduce you for those in my
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: community who may not have crossed paths with you before.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: The Honorable Tanya plipisec MP is the Minister for Social
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Services and one of the most senior women in the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Albanese government. Over her political careers, she's held portfolios spanning health, education,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: environment and social policy, and has been long associated with
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: advocacy around gender equality, domestic violence prevention, and social welfare
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: reform in this year's federal budget. In this year's federal budget,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: many of the government's social support measures sit across areas
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: directly impacting women's financial security, from child fought from child support,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: from child support enforcement and violence prevention, to housing, healthcare
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and community support services, which honestly makes her one of
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the most important voices in the entire budget conversation for
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Australian women right now. And I am so excited that
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I have managed to secure you for a quick hot
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: seat chat.
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: Oh well, it's great to be with you, and I
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: know how much your audience really respects and values your views.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: So I've got a daughter who really is all the time.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, hello, that is very fun. Now let's get
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: into a few quick fire questions. I would love to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: know a few more details about what you thought was
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: most powerful in last night's budget.
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: Well, one of the one of the big changes is
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: in the way that the child support schemes going to
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: operate to make sure that more children get the money
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: that they need to be brought up in comfort. At
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: the moment, there's about one point nine billion dollars of
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: child support debt that is unpaid, and that's only the
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: debt that we know about. That's only the people who
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: are using the child support agency to collect.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And they're actually disclosing what they actually one.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: Hundred percent, So we think that the debt is probably
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: more than twice that it would have to be and
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: we need to change that.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: And it's terrifying because I feel like everyone every woman
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: has a story of a friend who knows someone who's
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: ex partner or family member isn't disclosing that and trying
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to get out of it, and it's basically being weaponized
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: against women. Right.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and kids who are growing up in single parent
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: households are three times more likely to be growing up
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: in poverty. And if we get the child support system right,
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: those poverty rates drop dramatically. We also know that it's
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: not just about kids not having the money they need
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: to put food on the table to have a roof
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: over their heads. It's also about the way the system
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: is used to continue to harass and intimidate ex partners after,
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: you know, sometimes years after a relationship has ended. So
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: we're doing a few really important things. We're stopping people
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: who've got a child support debt leaving the country. We're
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: making sure that people are penalized if they're not lodging
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: their tax returns to hide income. We're making exchange of
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: information between government departments much easier so we can catch
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: those people if they're hiding income. And one of the
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: other things that I'm really excited about is we're going
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: to make the deduction of child support from wages much simpler,
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: much easier, so that for most people it will be
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: as easy to pay their child support as it is
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: when their employer pays their tax or pays their superannuation.
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: We just set it up, we automate it, and we
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: really reduce the conflict that goes with it.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And to me, that just makes sense. Yeah, Like, it
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: just makes sense. And it's so frustrating because it's not
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the way it's been. But are you feeling that as well.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: Look, it's frustrating that it's taken so long, but we're
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: talking about a million kids who rely on child support.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: So this is not a fringe issue. It's important just
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: to make sure that when people go into the child
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: support system they make decisions that ensure they get their money.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: So we give better advice upfront about what should work
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: for you, what rights you've got, and all the way
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: through we'll make sure that enforcement is better so that
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: kids actually getting the money they need to support them.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. In our community, and I think in the wider
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: community as well, there's often a narrative that child support
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: disputes are just quote, relationship disputes or relationship drama, but
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the financial but the financial consequences of that are catastrophic.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Do you think that the conversation around child support needs
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: to change culturally as well as politically, as well as systemically.
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Look, I think the child support system was originally
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: set up on the principle that a child still got
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: two parents, and a child should benefit from the financial
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: circumstances of both of their parents. I think we've really
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: a lot of people have come to see this as
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: a battle between mum and dad. It's not. It's just
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: about making sure that there is adequate support for that child.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: And if you know, mum's wage goes up or dad's
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: wage goes up, the support for that child he's also improved.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would also like to pivot off just child
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: support and ask about some state specific programs that I
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: saw and I was really interested in. Can you tell
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: me a bit more about some of those state specific
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: programs and how they're being and how they're being extended
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: across the country at the moment. So I'm talking about
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: like the Leaving Violence Program Regional Trial, which I saw
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I don't know if this is
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: getting as much press as I think it deserves.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Look, that is an amazing program in four
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: sites across Australia Broom, Darwin, Cairns and Dubbo. We're doing
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: really intensive support through Aboriginal community controlled organizations to help
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: people who are leaving violence. Now, I mean, we've got
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: this fantastic Leaving Violence program that we've made permanent. It's
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: right across the country. If you need to leave a
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: violent relationship, you can get up to five thousand dollars
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: support and fifteen hundred of that in cash. The rest
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: of it in you know, changed locks or a bus
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: ticket to get out of town. But that comes along
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: with safety planning and it comes along with ongoing support.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: But in those regional towns, we're doing something even more intensive,
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: where counselors are working face to face with women who
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: are planning to leave a relationship safely. Now you say,
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: you know, why do we need specific programs. Think about
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: if you live on a remote island in the Torrest Strait,
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: or if you live on a remote community on Cape
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: York or a tiny country town in the far northwest
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: of Western Australia. Safety planning like actually getting to safety
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: and having the financial support to do that is it's
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: not just life changing, it's life saving.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that I know and you know,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: but I'm not sure if everybody in our community knows
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: that the riskier is point in time for a woman
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: is when she's exiting the relationship. If she's in a
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: situation of domestic family violence, leaving is actually the time
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: at which her life is most most at risk. I
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: think that's heartbreaking because that's the decision she needs to
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: make to be in a better position. But women know
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that too, and that holds them back. How do you
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: think that the sentiment is going to change in those
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: regional communities, because I think it's already quite taboo to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: think about this or already quite taboo to talk about
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it and even plan. Because you're an example of being
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in Cape York, where is she meant to go?
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: One hundred percent. That's why we're doing this intensive investment,
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: particularly in those communities. But it's also why we made
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: the Leaving Violence Program permanent for every Australian. It's irrespective
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: of visa category. It's and that's very important too. If
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: people are here on a fiance visa or something, they think,
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: oh gosh, if I leave this violent relationship, I'm going
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: to lose the support I need to keep safe. That
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: Leaving Violence Program helps right across Australia, and that's a
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: billion dollar commitment from the government. But those regional trials
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: where we're doing face to face work in remote communities,
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: that shows us what is possible. All too often the
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: question is why didn't she leave? And we should be
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: asking where would she go and who would help her
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: leave safely exactly.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: And I was having a conversation with the Minister of
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Housing earlier today and she was saying that the number
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: one thing that is stopping women at the moment from
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: leaving relationships is they have nowhere to go. So I
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: think there's just a bigger picture if we zoom out
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and look at the budget as a whole of all
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of these things, kind of looking in together and working
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: together to put women in a better position, which I'm
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: she's on the money. I love to see that the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: government and the government recently announced an additional investment of
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: two point six four million dollars and then another two
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: point five two million dollars later in the year to
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: help Australian social enterprises. How might this investment actually impact
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the women who are listening to this today.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: It is another fantastic question because these social enterprises are
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: not always, but often working with newly arrived migrant and
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: refugee women. They're working with women in socioeconomic disadvantaged communities,
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: and basically they're taking people who feel like they are
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: excluded from the labor market and giving them the skills
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: they need to get back into the labor market and
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: very often to set up their own businesses as well.
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: So I've been to visit a lot of the social
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: enterprises that you're talking about, and they are things like
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: learning how to make an alter and tailor clothes, and
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: a lot of food businesses, as well. So I mean
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: it's always a fantastic visit. We go and visit a
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: community kitchen or a food business. I meet the women there.
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: Many of them have never had a job before. Like
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: there's a fantastic one in Winny'd Station. Most of the
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: women there are from Afghanistan. They weren't allowed to work
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: outside the family home. And the pride they have from
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: learning those work skills and the plans they have to
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: set up their own catering businesses, for example, to support
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: their families, it is really heartwarming.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I think that that would just spark something else in me,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: like I would love to be in your shoes on those.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: I love it. There's a really great organization called Plate
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: It Forward that does a lot of this work. I
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: reckon you need to interview them and get some of
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: their women on because definitely, do you know, economically, they
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: have gone from being not allowed to work, not allowed
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: to leave the home in some cases, to incredible plans
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: to not just make a job for themselves, but to
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: employ others to train up others to pass it forward.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: When women have financial literacy and financial freedom, all they
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: do is help other women. It's my favorite thing in
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the whole world. Now, I know I'm running out of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: time with you, and I want to ask one last question.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: In the budget last night, what were you disappointed with
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: that wasn't addressed to the full extent that you thought
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: it maybe should have.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Well, look, you know, budgets are always what you can
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: afford to do at the time, and we always want
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: to do more. I'm an ambitious minister. I want big
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: change for this country and I always you know, there's
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: always more things that I want to do. But I'm proud.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: I'm super proud of what we did last night. I
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: think the intergenerational equity in this budget, the gender equality
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: in this budget. It's a real labor budget.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: It's a very labor budget. Doctor Monique Ryan is the
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: independent MP for ku Yong and one of the growing
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: wave of teal independents who reshaped Australian politics at the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: last federal election. We're also neighbors. We work in the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: same building. Before entering politics. Get this, she was a
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: pediatric neurologist and hospital director, which means she came into
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: parliament from an actual career, not just the party machine.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: She's become known for speaking strongly on climate policy. Political
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: into gritty healthcare and women's representation, while also challenging both
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: major parties on housing affordability and cost of living pressures.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Given this budget is so heavily focused on housing tax
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: reform and household pressure, I would say she's got a
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: particularly interesting perspective on whether these measures actually go far enough. Monique,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: welcome to thank you.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: I'd love to be with you.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited about this because not only are you
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: my local member, and not only are you my local member,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: but I just feel like everything you stand for is
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: very She's on the money aligned, so my community are
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: going to want to hear from you. This budget made
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: some very significant changes to negative gearing and CGT. Some
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: we definitely saw some we were like, oh, that's new,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: that's been put on the table. Do you think these
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: reforms go far enough to actually improve housing affordability for
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: younger Australians.
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: I think there will be an improvement in housing affordability
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: for younger strands as a result of the changes that
• 28:59
  Speaker 6: were announced yesterday, and that's great. It's long over due
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: because we knew that we could see this impending crisis
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: for young people where effectively they were not going to
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: be able to afford a home of their own in
• 29:13
  Speaker 6: their own lifetime if they didn't benefit from intergenerational wealth transfer,
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: and for many young people, that was just becoming a
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: bridge too far. The problem with the changes that the
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: treasure announced yesterday whether they were pretty incremental and they're
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: only really going to have an effect over a relatively
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: long period of time because of the grandfathering arrangements. Now,
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: I completely respect the fact that it has been impossible
• 29:40
  Speaker 6: at the Australian federal parliamentary level for a long time
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: to change negative gearing and capital gains tax discount. So
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: I'll give props to Jim Chalmers for the fact that
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: he's done it, and you know, credit where credit is due.
• 29:56
  Speaker 6: But I think we could have perhaps expected a bit more,
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: and we could have expected for these changes to be
• 30:02
  Speaker 6: introduced more quickly than they will be. And I think
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: there's still a lot to do for this government to
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: address intergenerational inequity.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that's what I was reading through
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the budget last night, and that's kind of what stood
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: out to me as well. And maybe this is a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: brazen thing to say, but I felt like it was
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: very optimistic that two years from now they will still
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: be the government leading these changes. That they could have
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: done some pretty heavy hitting things right now, but it
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: was a little bit incremental and really does rely on
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: them getting in in two years or another government actually
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: picking it up and agreeing with their stance and actually
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: continuing it for it to have a long term impact.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Would you.
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: They've got ninety four seats. I actually think they've got
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: a massive mandate and this is the time to make
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: big bowl changes, to have the carriage to really commit
• 30:53
  Speaker 6: to the next generation.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: So use the audacity and slide on in.
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: Yes, and use the fact that the coalition is a
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: screaming heap at this point in time and one nation
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: for all the bladder has one member of the House.
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: At this point in time, the government's got this massive
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: mandate and it could show courage right now. It could
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: show that real commitment to the next generation that we
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: needed to. But there really wasn't that much on housing
• 31:19
  Speaker 6: in this that's going to affect the dial in the
• 31:24
  Speaker 6: next two or three years. Even there wasn't a whole
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: lot on childcare. There wasn't a whole lot. There was
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: no mention of students or no mention of universities. It
• 31:36
  Speaker 6: wasn't a whole lot for single parents.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: The healthcare and issues that we heard, you know, they
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: were okay, but they were a bit mid as well,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: I would say. And so there's still a lot more
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: that this government could do and that people like me
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: will continue to push it for.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have two kids under the age of two.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Because I'm quite delusional, but like you don't get here.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Are you not having a healthy sense of delusion when
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: it comes to childcare? And you just touched on that before.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's really it's not just a touchy subject,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: but it's something that we really need to be investing
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: more time and energy and effort into. What did you
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: hope to see when it came to childcare in the
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: budget this year?
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm still pushing for universal childcare and for better
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: regulation of the sector as well. I think that to
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: a significant extent, privatization of the childcare sector has been
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: against the best interests of parents and children. I think
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: the government really needs to get on the front foot.
• 32:35
  Speaker 6: It's the most important thing it could do to address
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: gender equity in this country is to make sure that
• 32:39
  Speaker 6: all women can access safe and affordable health a childcare
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: for their kids.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And this government You've heard it over and
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: over and over. This government's really pushing that housing supply
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: is the core issue here. This is what they're trying
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: to address with this budget. You know, Jim Chalmers yesterday
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: say this budget's for the first home buyer, but many
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Australian investors have had I guess structural advantages for years.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Do you agree with that? Do you think that, you know,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: housing supply is the core issue here.
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: I think in terms of getting people into homes of
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: their own homeless. I think in terms of getting people
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: into homes that they own. Yes, we need more supply.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: That that is the single most important issue. And the
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: Treasury's model.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: That we as a result of these changes and UNCSA
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: should probably get another seventy five thousand homes, although some
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: of the secondary considerations that they had suggested that might
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: not be quite that high.
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: And so that is really really important. But it's also
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: a question of where those homes are, what are the
• 33:46
  Speaker 6: facilities that support them. So most young people don't want
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: to live an hour or more from where they work
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: or from their parents, and they don't want to live
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: on the outskirts of really big cities that don't have
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: decent amenities, whether that be childcare, healthcare, sporting facilities, all
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: the things that contribute to your daily quality of life,
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: especially when you've got young kids. So they're the things
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: that governments really do need to commit to. We also
• 34:15
  Speaker 6: need a really i think, burgeoning economy in terms of
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: one of the issues that I've been pushing on hard
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: is medical research funding. Young people are telling.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Me that they don't feel we're an innovative and clever
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: country in the way that we used to be, and
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: some of the push to the right and some of
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: the conservative side of politics has really gone, you know,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: once to take us back to the sixties and seventies,
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: whereas the young people I talked to want to be
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: able to afford degrees and pay them off quickly and
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: then get going with really interesting careers that will benefit
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: from a really strong R and D sector, for example,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: which is something.
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: That the major parties really aren't talking about all that much.
• 34:53
  Speaker 6: There was some stuff about that in the budget last night.
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: I've been pushing really hard for more money for medical research,
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: and we've got a really big commitment on that, which
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: was fantastic to see. But there's still a lot to
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: do in the R and D sector and in medical
• 35:06
  Speaker 6: and scientific technology.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you just touched on medical and I feel like
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: women's health was one of the bigger winners in this budget,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: which is always exciting to see because for years we've
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: been rallying for it. But do you think we're finally
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: seeing women's health care, women's healthcare being treated as an
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: economic issue rather than just a medical one.
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: Yes, absolutely, And I think that is one thing that
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: I will give this government props for that. There has
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: been a real commitment to women's health and a really
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: significant number of initiatives over a number of years now,
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: and at looking at some of the inequities there in
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: terms of healthcare outcomes and the cost of healthcare, there's
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: still a lot more to do. I'm actually the deputy
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: chair of the Health Committee and we're looking at the
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: moment into the access to an affordability of specialist medical
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: care in this country, and too many women are still
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: struggling to get obstetricam particular, but also care around endometriosis
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: and other just access to gynecological supports.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Really yeah, and I think that for me, that's really
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: exciting seeing my community of women jumping up and down
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: for so long about needing funding, just needing access to medications,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: needing all like it's so exciting. But another issue that
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: they are not so hot on and I'm excited to
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: ask someone outside the Labor Party about is the shift
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: in CGT and negative gearing and the sentiment around that
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: because Labor has now shifted its position on policies or
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: it has now shifted its position on the policies of
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: CGT and negative gearing after previously saying no, we're ruling
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: that out, we won't touch that, nor worries. Do you
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: see that as responsible economic adaptation or political pressure finally
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: forcing against I.
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: Would have preferred to see changes on CGT and negative
• 37:03
  Speaker 6: gearing have to have been part of the Labour Buddies
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: platform at the last federal election. I thought that we
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: should be talking about those issues at that point in time.
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: And so when people talk about a broken promise, I
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: completely agree that it should have been on the table
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: earlier and the government should have been upfront about that.
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: Having said that, I don't think that we should be
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: waiting another year or two to take action on this,
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: and so I have to applaud the fact that the
• 37:29
  Speaker 6: Treasure managed to get this across the line. We've seen
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: lots of people failed to do that since John Howard
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: introduced these changes twenty years ago, and so you might
• 37:43
  Speaker 6: question why it's been done now, and I think it
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: is political pressure and the fact that the governments become
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: increasingly aware of people's dissatisfaction and frustration. But it would
• 37:56
  Speaker 6: have been better, there's no doubt had they been a
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: bit more upfront about the fact that they were thinking
• 38:00
  Speaker 6: about this way back when. I would say the fact,
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: I really feel pretty strongly that the Cross Bench have
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: had a pretty significant impact on the agenda at this
• 38:10
  Speaker 6: federal budget. So many of us pushed hard that stationally
• 38:15
  Speaker 6: tax cut reform before the government did it. Many of
• 38:18
  Speaker 6: us have spoken about negative gearing and the capital gains
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: tax discount and Allegra spind has come up with a
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: really mature body of work on tax reform in this
• 38:27
  Speaker 6: country and has pushed the government on it. Many of
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: us have been pushing the government for reform of our
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: oil and gas taxation for a long time.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: We didn't get that last night. It's not going to
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: go away because young Austraians older strains as well, are
• 38:42
  Speaker 6: furious that we are effectively giving away our gas and
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: oil for bugger all.
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and the fact that the government didn't.
• 38:51
  Speaker 6: Address that last night is you know, it's incredibly frustrating,
• 38:54
  Speaker 6: but the cross Bench will keep them to it. We've
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: also pushed hard on the cost of education hex. I've
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: pushed out on healthcare and medical reform, and those are
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: all things that have come to the fore and have
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: been talked about because the cross Bench have put it
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: on their agenda. So I'll give the government props for
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: responding to that pressure, but I'm going to say that
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: I and other cross Benches have put these issues into
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: the spotlight. I've got young people in particular, to say
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: we care about this and we want you to do
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: something about it, and the government's responding as political parties
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: do yes.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: And I feel like there's been a lot of conversation,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: especially when it comes to you know, capital gains and
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: negative gearing and what's going on economically in the world,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: and them saying, oh, it's a very different budget than
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: the budget we would have presented pre the twenty eighth
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of February. And you know, I applaud them for being
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: nimble and able to change and change policies, but that
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: was also something we were asking for back then and
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: to me, should been taken into consideration.
• 40:01
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: So if you can beat Nimble on that but sweep
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: this under the RLG and say that you didn't have
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: time and you didn't have enough free sources for that,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's just a bit of a get
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: out of jail free card.
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, potentially. I mean, I think I know that lots
• 40:15
  Speaker 6: of other people who have been saying, don't waste a crisis.
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: You know, when people can really appreciate because fuel prices
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: have gone up so much that we have a real
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: problem here, that's when you should act on it. But
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: the government has wasted that crisis when it comes to
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: oil and gas taxation and the potential to reform those.
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: What I have learned since I became a politician is
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: that people have power. You know, constituents have power, young
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: people have more power than they realize, and people who
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: aren't members of the parties, by picking up issues and
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: pushing really really hard on them, can affect policy, can
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: affect what the government is thinking about and the decision
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: that it makes. And even just in the last few
• 40:54
  Speaker 6: weeks when I've been really pushing the government hard, on
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: funding for medical research. I've realized that these decisions are made,
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: you know, sometimes seventy two hours forty eight hours before
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: the budget papers are actually published.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: You know, you can you can really at the ant
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: and keep. If you can put pressure on the government
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: about political issues effectively, and you know the challenges how
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: to do that, you can actually affect real change. And
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: it's one of the exciting bits of the job. It's
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: one of the things I love about my job, getting
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: young people on board in particular, but also other people
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: who don't feel that the government's really representing their best interests,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: and then trying to get a result on things that
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: really matter to them.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I attended the budget last year and
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I am obviously here and having the privilege of doing
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: so this year. And I got a lot of criticism
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: from my community saying, why are you getting political? And
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: I find that an interesting narrative given money is inherently
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: political and it impacts women disproportionately. And you know, sitting
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: here hearing you speak with such passion, it's me wonder
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: how does a pediatric neurologist and hospital director go, you
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to go into politics? Where did
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: that come from. Did you always think that you were
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: going to do that?
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: Why, Well, you can choose not to be interested in politics,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: but you can't choose not to be affected by it,
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: because how much you pay for the home that you
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: live in, or for your groceries or the power or
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: your kids child care.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: You might not be all interested in it, but revolved
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: they're affected.
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: So yeah, you are involved. Yeah.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: No, Look, I was just like many of the other
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: cross benches in twenty twenty one late twenty twenty.
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: One during COVID.
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: I was frustrated and our government at that time did
• 42:38
  Speaker 6: not represent me. Yeah, it didn't represent women, It didn't
• 42:42
  Speaker 6: represent people who were able to think independently and critically
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: about how the government was acting. It wasn't acting with integrity.
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: I was really frustrated with how it managed COVID. But
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: for me, the big issue was climate and it's failure
• 42:56
  Speaker 6: to engage with the need for effective action on climate,
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: not just for our environment but also for our economy.
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: And so there was a community group put an add
• 43:05
  Speaker 6: in the paper and said are you the next independent
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: member for.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: KUM that's what Yes, Actually I am damn right.
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: No.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I didn't think they choose me actually, but you know
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: the Kim I went along and met these people and
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: they did choose me, and you know, we did something
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: quite remarkable.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: It was just having a little bit of audacity.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: Well audacity, yeah, but also the support of incredible people
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: with vision and energy. You know, we took on something
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: that we didn't you know, we didn't really believe that
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: would succeed until right up to the last you know,
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: vote was cast on election day in twenty twenty two,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: but it was we basically said we're not happy with
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: this and we want to take a stand and we
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: want to change things if we can. And it turned
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: out that we.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Could, and you could, I was saying earlier today. As
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I waltzed on into the Prime Minister's office, I lean
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: over to KR and I said, has the joke gone
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: too far?
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: Like?
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: How have we gotten this far? And I think that
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: we just need to throw our hats in the ring
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: because how hard could it be? Men do it well exactly,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: They can't be that complex. So when it comes to
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: your political future, what does that look like? Where do
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: you want to end up? Well?
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: I absolutely love being an independent because people come to
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: me and say, I really care about this. I really
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: want you to do something about it. And if I
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: think that it's a reasonable thing, and I think I
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: could perhaps do something about it, and it's something that
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: would make a meaningful difference to my community, I can
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: pick it up and run with it. I couldn't do
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: that as a member of a political party. And as
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: a member of the House of Representatives, I can talk
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: to in the House about things that people care about.
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: I get emails or phone calls from constituents and I
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: tell their stories in the House of Parliament a week later.
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: I'll be doing that this week.
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: And it's just an incredibly exciting and inspiring position to
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: be in. It is a bit exhausting, and it.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: Plays have it with your family life, and Makaverdal doesn't
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: appreciate it at all.
• 45:05
  Speaker 6: But I'm here for the long run. I'll stay as
• 45:07
  Speaker 6: long as Kum will have me.
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: I love that.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for spending some time with
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: She's on the money. We really appreciated it me specifically.
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: Oh thanks, Micho, I really appreciate its fun.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: The Honorable Katherine King MP is the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Regional Development and Local Government, which honestly means she oversees
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: a very huge amount of stuff Australians interact with every
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: single day, from roads and rail to fuel policy, regional
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: funding and major infrastructure investments. She's one of the Albanesi
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: government's most senior ministers and has become a key figure
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: in conversations around housing supply, transport availability and how Australians
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: prepare for long term population growth. Given this year's budget
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: has such a strong focus on infrastructure, housing and fuel
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: pressures linked to global instability, she's at the center of
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: some of the biggest cost of living conversations that are
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: happening right now in Australia. Welcome to She's on the money.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: No, I'm very excited about this. Today has been my
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: nerdy dreams come true. Last night's budget included major investments
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: into fuel security and temporary fuel excise relief because of
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: pressures from global fuel from the global oil crisis. How
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: concerning or how concerned is the government about rising fuel
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: prices over the next twelve months.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously this is not a war of our making,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: but we're having to deal with the consequences and so
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: from February twenty eight, and I don't think many people
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: in Australia would have known where or what the stratophmules was.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: What I think we all know now and really what
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: we've done is first focus was on getting supply, like
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: absolutely doing everything we possibly could to make sure supply
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: kept flying. We saw those original sort of spikes in
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: demand as people sort of panicked a bit, but that's
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: really settled down now. I think austrains have been magnificent,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: but that's been because of some really hard work to
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: get supplied. So we've now got more fuel in the
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: country than we did previously, but we've still got to
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: watch that. But then of course we're dealing with the
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: consequences of the price rise, which every country is having
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: to deal with. So immediately cutting halving the fuel exercise
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: was really important in my portfolio. Road user charging. The
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: trucking company have a particular road user charge that they
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: have to deal with and so taking that down to
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: zero is meant trucking companies could keep moving freight around
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: and that's increasing every wharehouse you go to, massive online
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: shopping everywhere. It's full of goods that people are bought
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: from all over the place, and keeping all of that
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: moving around the country as well as our feud. Food
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: supply has been pretty critical, so both of those things.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: But we're in no doubt that the price is fluctuated
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: a bit. It went down for a bit. I think that,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: you know, we're in for an extended period of this,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: and so that's why the cost of living relief that's
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: in the budget's really important as well. So tax two
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: tax cuts that are coming up this year and next,
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: the thousand dollars instant tax deduction and then of course
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: the new two hundred and fifty dollars for tax offsets,
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: and I think that sort of builds a system where
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: we're actually wanting people who are earning an income to
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: pay less, but we also want to try and deal
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: with some of these issues around assets and other investments.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: So we want the tax system to work for people
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: who are working.
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Now I understand from a government level why the fuel
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: ex SiZ maybe wasn't extended further, but I did kind
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of expect it to see or I expected to see
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: it be extended even for a few more months. Was
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: that a topic of conversation and why wasn't it included?
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Well, certainly one of the things we've had to really
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: weigh up in this budget, which is hard and we
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: haven't had you know, previous governments haven't had this same
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: sort of issue around inflation. Anything that you spend on
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: putting cash handouts or fuel exitu or things like that
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: can be inflationary. And we've got this circumstance right at
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: the moment where inflation is going up and that's largely
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: driven by what's happening in the Middle East, but we'd
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: started to start to creep up beyond where we would
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: have liked to see it, and so putting a lot
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: out there in a budget can be seen as inflationary.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: And then that also sends a signal to the Reserve
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: Bank that they might increase interest rates because they want
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: to see inflation come down. So we've got to balance
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: this really, really carefully provide cost of living relief where
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: we can build the resilience into our fuel security supply,
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: but really calibrate that in the budget. And that's really
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: why you've seen the initiatives that we've put in place.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think sometimes when my community looks at it,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: they go, well, that just doesn't seem fair. And you
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: know a lot of the politicians are talking at the
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: moment about it being a really fair budget, would you
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: say that's reflective of the reality.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what we're trying to do is really,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: as I said, provide that cost of living relief. And
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: it's obviously not just through the tax cuts. There's things
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: which make a big difference in communities that I live in,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: things like making the urgent care clinics permanent, you know,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: the billing clinics, cheaper medicines, putting investing in our public
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: hospital system, and really trying to work hard to make sure,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: particularly in healthcare, that we're taking costs out of the
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: system where we can as well. So those things are
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: really important. There'll be a big focus along the way
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: on specialists that you know, that's something we've flagged is
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: an area that we really need to start to think
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: about and look at as well. So all of that
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: has been really important to put in the budget. But
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: at the same time, you know, we don't want to
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: put we don't want the budget to put more pressure
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: on inflation, and that's really what we've also got to
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: try and do as well, because that will hurt people
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in my community, when we're here infrastructure spending, I
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: think a lot of us just assume that means that
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Sydney or Melbourne is getting something new and fancy and shiny.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: But is that the reality, because I think that a
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: lot of regional communities are feeling like they're left waiting
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: for things to happen. Would you say, what would you
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: say to regional Australians who are currently feeling a little
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: bit forgotten?
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, almost over half of the projects that I
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: oversee out of the governments, we've got a ten year,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty billion dollar pipeline of infrastructure that
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: we co invest with with state governments, territory governments and
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: local governments. Like a lot of those are in regional
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: areas as well. So whether it's rail or road projects,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: whether it's community infrastructure, which is also funded out of
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: the regional development part of my portfolio and the local
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: government part of my portfolio, we've been at pains to
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: really make sure that we keep those investments across the board.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: One of the things I'm proudest of having done and
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: early days in our budget and this budget continues, the
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: flow of money is we've doubled the amount of money
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: the federal government gives to every single local Council for Roads.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: When we came to office, we knew, you know, there've
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: been big weather events in twenty twenty two, lots of
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: potholes across the country. Federal government can't be responsible for
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: every pothole in the country, but what we can do
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: is give money to that level of government that is
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: responsible for those local roads to really help them out.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: And that helps communities right the way across the board.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: So there's now we're getting to a billion dollars each
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: and every year which is distributed to the six hundred
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: councils across the country, the vast majority of which are
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: in regional Australia. The other thing I did was increase
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: money for what we call the black Spots programs, so
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: program to try and help road safety, as well as
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: another program for local government. So really concentrating on providing
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: that opportunity for local councils, the level of government closest
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: to where people are, to try and spend more money
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: on their roads and their infrastructure. This budget also has
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: got a big amount of dollars for community infrastructure, whether
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: you're in the suburbs or in the regions. So new
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: rounds of grant programs that help with things like sporting facilities, theaters,
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: arts precincts, because we want people to have great places
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: to live. And whether you're in an older established a
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: suburb with aging infrastructure, or a brand new suburb, this
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: program really helps councils apply for money for those new,
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: big projects that they can't necessarily afford on their own.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which I think is really exciting and really is
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: pretty fun actually back into the community and like that's
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, at the crux about what the
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: everyday Australian is actually experienced.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: It's where your kids play sport, or it's where they
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: learn to dance. It's all of those halls and you know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of them. So I wish we could
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: fund everyone all the time, because when you're an infrastructure
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: ministry you want to build everything all at once. But really,
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: you know, what this program does is allow for councils
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: to determine what's the next priority and to do that.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: Like this week alone, I've just opened Carterfield's Hockey Hockey Center,
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: which again there were just hundreds and hundreds of kids
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: doing training here in Canberra, and that's been funded out
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: of one of our election commitments. But that sort of
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: community infrastructure is really it's actually great to see people
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: participating and that's you know, where you spend the vast
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: majority of your time, whether it's at work or school
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: or is kids sport.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: One of the coolest things about the opportunity I've had
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: today to talk to so many people is the only
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: male I've interviewed today was mister Anthony Albanisi, and every
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: other minister and politician I've spoken to today has been female,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and I just really get excited about the fact that
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: there are so many female that there are so many
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: female voices in this space at the moment, because the
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: female experience is relatively unique, and we know that women
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: in regional areas specifically are disproportionately impacted by transport accessibility,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: healthcare access and then housing insecurity, which I've had a
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: number of conversations today about. Was that considered in this
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: year's infrastructure and regional development spending.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so a couple of things. And whilst it's administered
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: by the Housing Minister, Clara Nei l she and I
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: work pretty closely on local government issues. The housing support
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: programs and EXIST program that's been around for a while
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: had several billion dollars into that, which is about taking
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: out some of the costs of these big developments. And
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: I'm really proud that Claire in this budget has got
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: an additional two billion dollars five hundred million of that
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: quarantine just for regional areas to build the sewerage, the water. Again,
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: none of the things that sound part particularly exciting, but
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: they're the things that stop housing developments going ahead because
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: developers say, well, we just can't afford it. At the moment.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: It's taking some of those costs out, and so we
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: see really great examples of regional communities who are seeing
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: new developments occur because of this money. So I'm pretty
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: proud of that. There was a big focus on how
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: do we get more supply, particularly into our regions. But
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: also I have one of the sort of economic facing portfolios.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: But you know, when you look at whether it's social security,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: whether it's issues around domestic violence, all of the money
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: that's going into really improving the level of services, availability
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: of housing stock for not for profit organizations, that focus
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: has been something that we bring around the table.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I feel like all of that we mentioned
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: table and just like around the table, it's really hard
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: for the average Australian even getting food on the table
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: is really hard at the moment because cost of living
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: is impacting us all But again, and I'm kind of
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: honing in on this regional water. I'm all good, I'm
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: honing in on regional I guess because I have so
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: many people in my community because it is an online
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: community that are regional, and it's a really beautiful I
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: think she's on the money is a really beautiful way
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: of them connecting in spaces that they haven't been able
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: to connect before. But the cost of living does look
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: very different for especially women in regional areas. What specific
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: measures in this budget do you think regional women and
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: families are actually going to feel day to day rather
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: than you know, the big ticket building some infrastructure.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, I guess. You know, there's six
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: point three and women who are straying, taxpayers who work,
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: and all of the tax cuts, the two that are coming,
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: the instant tax deduction as well as the two hundred
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: and fifty dollars tax offset as well, all of that
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: helps helps women. But one of the things I'm really
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: proud of when you look at and again it's in
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: the health portfolio, but again, the urgent care clinics. If
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: you have a look at my community. I live in Ballarat,
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: that's my hometown and so we have an urgent care
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: clinic there and we've had over fifty thousand people have
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: used that since it opened, and I think about all
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: of those people have had a free service. So whether
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: it's someone who's just been worried or the kid they're
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: worried about something and they're not sure about their new baby,
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: or whether it's their kids and an injury at sport,
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: rather than having to go to the hospital or wait
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: to go get an appointment at a GP. They're a
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: really big deal. And they're in regions across in my
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: home state of Victoria, from Bendigo to Ballarat, Aubrey to
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Warnabule and Shepherd and they're urgent care clinics in those communities.
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: And I think not that you know, there is sharing
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: responsibility of children, but often it is women who are
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: taking their kids to these health appointments and those so
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: I think that has been a real game changer in
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: terms of access to healthcare, and I think that's a
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: good thing in regional communities.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, incredible, Thank you so much for spending some time
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: with me too. That very well has been very exciting,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: and I just know that the community is going.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: To love this terrific You are very welcome.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: The Honorable Chris Bowen MP is Australia's Minister for Climate
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Change and Energy, and whether Australians realize it or not,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: a huge amount of the cost of living conversation actually
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: runs through his portfolio, from power bills and fuel prices
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: to renewable energy investment and energy security. Many of the
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: precious households are feeling right now are deeply connected to
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: global energy markets and Australia's transition away from fossil fuels.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: In this year's budget, we saw major discussion around fuel security,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: global oil shocks, and renewable investment, as well well as
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: energy resilience, all while Australians are continuing to ask the
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: same question over and over when a power bills actually
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: going to feel cheaper? Chris Bowin, can you answer that
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: for men?
• 59:12
  Speaker 7: Well, the good news is, and I'm very pleased to
• 59:14
  Speaker 7: join you, the good news is that we've got lots
• 59:17
  Speaker 7: of goals. We want to reduce emissions, we want to
• 59:19
  Speaker 7: make our energy system more reliable, and we want to
• 59:21
  Speaker 7: reduce bills, and it's the same answer to all three problems,
• 59:25
  Speaker 7: which is actually properly designed, well calibrated renewal energy is
• 59:31
  Speaker 7: the fastest to deploy, the cheapest, lowest emissions, and we
• 59:36
  Speaker 7: are seeing that start to impact as we're going to
• 59:38
  Speaker 7: see just in a couple of weeks the latest energy
• 59:40
  Speaker 7: bill update on pretty optimistic that's going to show reductions
• 59:44
  Speaker 7: in energy bills. But also one thing I think our
• 59:47
  Speaker 7: listas will be interested in is the benefit of this
• 59:50
  Speaker 7: system is that you can take control. N Olds used
• 59:55
  Speaker 7: to get a bit of a choice about which electricity company,
• 59:58
  Speaker 7: but that's it really powers generated in a coal fire
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 7: power station and you bought it. Maybe you could buy
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: it off different people, but you're still buying the power.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: Now, same thing repackaged well exactly.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 7: But now you can have a power station on your roof,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 7: you can make your own energy, you can have a
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 7: battery in your garage to store that energy. Increasingly, you
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 7: can have a battery in your driveway because evs are
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 7: also a battery on wheels, and we're integrating them into
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 7: the system so that you can draw the power off
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 7: your car so you can charge it in the day
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 7: when power prices are cheap, often negative. You power your
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 7: car in them day if you can. This won't work
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 7: for absolutely everyone, but depending on your circumstances, power your
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 7: car in the day and then charge your house from
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 7: your car and the night so that you're not calling
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 7: on electricity at all. When electricity is most expensive is
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 7: the night, because that's when we're relying on coal, which
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 7: is a very expensive form of energy. In the day,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 7: electricity is very cheap. And also we're giving people the
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 7: opportunity where we can have three hours of free power
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 7: in the middle of the day through what we call
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 7: the Solos Share Offer if you choose to take it up.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 7: So my point is really it's putting people much more
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 7: in control. It's turning into what we now call a
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 7: pro humor. You're consuming it, are you sure, but you're
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 7: also producing it. And for people who want to design
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 7: the system in such a way as a suitsum, now
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 7: the world's your royster.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have power at home. It's all good. I
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: can make some we don't need to go out. Sound
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: like my mum who's like, no, we have food at home.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 7: Well, it's true, and I think it's really cool.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that again. So this budget
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: has repeatedly referenced global instability and fuel security, particularly with
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the tension in the Middle East impacting oil prices. How
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: much of Australian's current or how much of Australia's current
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: cost of living pressure do you think is actually tied
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: to energy markets right now?
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: Look, the energy is the economy, so it's direct the
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 7: bills you get, but it also impacts on the cost
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 7: of production. So the things we buy, energy goes into them.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 7: The cheap where you can make any the cheaper flows
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 7: right through. So yes, we are facing global instability. Oil
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 7: prices have been way up, that's the bad news. Better
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 7: news is gas prices have an increased by as much
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 7: as we thought they might, So that's good. But ultimately
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 7: these shocks are going to happen more often. Right, the
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 7: world is becoming less secure place. You know, I've lived
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 7: through three energy crisis in my life. I'm fifty three
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 7: and I've been Energy Minister for two of them, right,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 7: because so that means they're happening a lot more rapidly, right,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 7: So we need to make our energy system stronger, more secure,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 7: more is less dependent on these very expensive and volatile
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 7: international commodities like oil.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and I feel like having it at home,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: being able to produce it ourselves all sounds incredibly fantastic
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: to be honest. But that's expensive to implement. So what
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: type of incentive are we being given as the everyday
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: consumer to implement these things in our home which ultimately
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: take pressure off the economy.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 7: Yeah, lots lots. So there's always been for the last
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 7: twenty five years, has been support for solar panels, right, yep.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 7: We've introduced support for batteries. Roughly a thirty percent rebate
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 7: depends on the size of the battery setup, but so
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 7: on average thirty percent you get off the cost of
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 7: your battery. Australians are taking it up in gangbuster proportions today.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 7: We hit three hundred and ninety thousand batteries installed in
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 7: the last not not even twelve months, since one July
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 7: last year. That's massive and that's what a bit of
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 7: support from government can do. So we can have all
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 7: the government substanties you like, unless the strangers want to
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 7: take it up. They won't, so they're taking up my
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 7: home batteries evs. Depending on your circumstances, you can get
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 7: what we call the EV tax cut, which is through
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 7: the nevated lease. As strainers are taking that up in
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 7: big numbers, we've just kept that. We've made it a
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 7: bit more focused on more affordable cars, so anything under
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 7: seventy five thousand for an EV, so there's plenty of
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 7: support there. You're right the capital costs, the upfront cost
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 7: can be very big. And there are other things too,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 7: like you can get low interest loans through the most banks,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 7: which we help finance through the Planetary Finance Corporation in
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 7: the government. We actually make those loans cheap BA if
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 7: they're forore EV's sole panels, batteries, so you get the
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 7: outfront rebate, you get lower interest loans.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: There's lots of support, so talk to me about So
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: talk to me about the changes to the EV tax
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: concessions that are coming over the following years. Because what
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: I took from that last night was that if I
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: really want to buy a very nice electric vehicle, I
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: maybe should do that before the first of April next year.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 7: If you want to buy an electric vehicle between seventy
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 7: five thousand and ninety one thousand, that's correct. So at
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 7: the moment, the threshold is ninety one thousand. Nothing above
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 7: ninety one. Do we support the loan ninety one? We
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 7: do the first of April next year. We're bringing it
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 7: down to seventy five. Now, there are still lots of
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 7: very nice cvs for seventy five or less, Like really
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 7: nice cvs for seventy five or less. We can do
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 7: that because we'll change the rules and forced the car
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 7: manufacturers to bring more types of models to Australia. When
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 7: we came to office three years ago, there were no
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 7: evs under forty thousand. There's ten, you know, and they're
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 7: pretty nice too. But you can get a really nice
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 7: one for seventy five thousand, which is still covered. But
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 7: if you do want to go to that ninety one thousand,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 7: then yes, you've got roughly twelve months.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: Well I found it quite interesting as well, because if
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: you want us to be moving towards this, I would
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: have assumed that that would have been broadened instead of restricted.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: What were the decisions behind.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 7: Well, we want to drive it further. We want to
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 7: drive that. I mean, it's taxpayers money, right, so we
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 7: want to make sure it's focused. So we're not you know,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 7: I'm not interested in subsidizing cars at one hundred and
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 7: fifty thousand dollars.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Even if you can afford that, If you can afford
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: that and pay for that, exactly right, I'm on your team.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: I just was like, I reckon, people are going to
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: wonder why we would be cutting that back because.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 7: We put more money into it to make it last longer.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 7: But we have said, Okay, we couldn't do this four
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 7: years ago because there weren't any affordable leaves in Australia.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 7: Now you can, So let's adjust these policies as you
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 7: go to change to the circumstance.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, and talk to me about I guess a
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: lot of Australians are feeling that climate policy gets framed
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: as an environmental issue but not necessarily as a financial one,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: which it is. Do you think enough is being communicated
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: about the long term I guess cost of living, benefits
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of implementing renewable energy.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 7: That's certainly my approach. You know, as much as I can,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 7: I agree with you, because you know, I say all this.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 7: We do need to reduce emissions for planet. Absolutely, that's
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 7: an obligation to future generations and an obligation to the
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 7: rest of the world. But if we didn't have to
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 7: this would make sense, right, This is better economics, better
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 7: for households, better for governments, better for countries. What's good
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 7: for the planet, it's good for your pocket and vice versa.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 7: It's good economics and the world's climate emergencies. Australia as
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 7: jobs opportunity, and it's also an opportunity for better energy
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 7: where consumers are in charge. Is cheaper, it's fastes to deployed.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 7: You can put a solar panel on your roof in
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 7: a month when you put in the order. You can't
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 7: fit a cop Yeah, see what It takes more than
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 7: that to build a Toqui fire power station. Right, So
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 7: you know it's quicker for everyone. It's a win win win.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So when I was reading through the budget last
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: night and even this morning, there's a lot of talk
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: about energy resilience.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 7: Ye, what's that?
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: What's it mean? Why do we keep using this frame?
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 7: Well, it means being able to continue to produce and
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 7: consume energy when we're facing big shocks in supply chain.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 7: It means, you know, if the straits of Hormal's close,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 7: or Vladimir Putin stops exporting gas, or any international development
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 7: in our region in Asia which you know people say
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 7: it's possible in coming years that our energy system will
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 7: get through it just fine. We'll have enough energy and
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 7: we don't need to worry about it. Frankly, that's energy resilience.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome. And critics internationally and nationally often say that
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Australia is just too slow when it comes to making
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: change on climate action, despite already seeing some of the
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: economic impacts of climate events and global instability. What would
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: you say to younger Australians who are just feeling really
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: frustrated about this rate of change or the pace of change.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 7: I get it, we all would like to go as
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 7: fast as we can. But we're going very fast, you know,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 7: and I keep my foot on the accelerator, real, real
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 7: hard on this decarlent ev I'm assuming well that too.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 7: But also the transition. I mean, we just hit fifty
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 7: percent renewable in asy.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: In Australia, which is incredible.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 7: It's incredible. It was thirty three percent four years ago.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 7: We're driving towards eighty two percent by twenty thirty, twenty
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 7: thirty four years away. It's not long, right, so we
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 7: don't have long to get this transition done. And we're
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 7: making other progress like in evs. In twenty twenty two,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 7: Australians bought one EV every fifty minutes. Now they're buying
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 7: one EV every three minutes. Like we are getting on
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 7: with this task. Sure, I know people would like a
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 7: faster I'd like a faster, but it's going very fast,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 7: and our twenty thirty five target sixty two to seventy
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 7: percent is extraordinarily ambitious by international standards and by our
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 7: own like we are going to have to drive fast
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 7: to get there, so we are doing that.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I don't disagree. One of the most interesting tensions I've
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: seen in this budget, I think, is balancing energy affordability
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: with decarbonization. How difficult is it politically to do both
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: of those things at the same time.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 7: When one sense, it is easy because you know, as
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 7: I keep saying, when one is the cheapest for women
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 7: is in a decarbonized so and that sense is easy.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 7: In another sense, it's hard because people twist it. You know,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 7: there are politicians and commentators who say, well, if any
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 7: when's you so, Chip, how come your bills are going up? Okay,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 7: Well yeah, Chris, it's been a war.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Doesn't equal corrousation. Not everybody seems to subscribe to.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 7: That there are people of bad faith who you know,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 7: write that and say that, and thenre are people of
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 7: good faith in the community but are very busy and
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 7: don't think about this all the time, and you hear
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 7: that message. Oh yeah, that sounds right, anybody, We're in
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 7: your energy again. Actually, reali initia is the cheapest form
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 7: of energy. The more of it we have, the less
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 7: reliant we are on colon gas, which you're expensive. Batteries
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 7: are setting the price in Australia much more often about
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 7: thirty percent of the time. That's great. That means it's
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 7: cheaper because that means that the cheap renewal energy we've
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 7: got in the middle of the day is now seeing
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 7: the price in the nighttime because of the batteries we're building.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: So talking about that initiative, Victoria's midday power saving initiative
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: is I think an interesting concept. And I've been, you know,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: logging my washing machine to go off at midday to
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: make sure that I'm making the most of it. But
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: it's an interesting concept because it rewards households for using
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: energy when solar supply is the strongest. But that's not
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: necessarily when they are home, because most of us are
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: working Australians. Are we likely to see more programs or
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: more flexibility in these programs rolling out?
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 7: Yeah, So I mean credit to the Victorian government for
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 7: doing that based out on our program. So we introduced
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 7: to that copied you, Yeah, and in a good way.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 7: I'm not critical of them in a good way because.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: We copy your homework because I shared it with them.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 7: Yes, exactly. Because it's a very complicated arrangement. But we
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 7: can do it for some states but not others for
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 7: reasons many years standing. So we've done it for New
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 7: South Wales, for Southeast Queensland and South Australia. So we
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 7: call it solar sharer. They call it midday savor.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: We've got our own.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 7: Yeah, you've got your own which is basically exactly the same,
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 7: which is great. So basically three hours in the middle
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 7: of the day. The companies can choose which three hours,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 7: but you know it's pretty obvious it's going to be
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 7: around midday because the energy is so cheap then, and
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 7: so we if you just moved part of your use
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 7: to the middle of the day, you can save a
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 7: lot of money and it's better for the grid. But
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 7: if the country because there's less reliant at night when
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 7: when things get tighter and tougher. Now it's not for everyone,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 7: as you said, you know, if you're out in the
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 7: middle of the day and you can't use it, but
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 7: for lots of people, either retired couples, working from home,
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 7: you know, if you can do it, if you're working
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 7: from home, or increasingly, you know smart appliances, you can
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 7: schedule from your workplace and say, okay, turn the dishwasher
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 7: on now, or schedule it before you leave. I mean,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 7: that wasn't possible when I was a kid, but it
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 7: is now for you know, lots of things, not everything,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 7: but for lots of things.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is very cool now. I know I'm running
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: out of time with you, but tell me, what is
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: one thing that wasn't included in the budget that you
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: wish was.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 7: Oh, that's a bit of a tough question because I'm
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 7: a member of the cabinet. I signed off on the
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 7: budget with the treasurer, so you did this.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: But I feel like it's a reasonable question that kind
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: of humanizes ministers and people in politest because we all
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: kind of wish we had an endless budget. But at
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, it is a budget.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 7: A budget. They are limited, and it's limited in time.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 7: You know that there are only so many things you
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 7: can argue for in a political cycle. This is a
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 7: big budget. There's lots of reform in this budget. You know,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 7: need to gear and capital, gas sacks, you know, really
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 7: putting young people at the heart of the budget. That's
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 7: going to be a big I don't know, if you
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 7: see the front pages of the day's.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: Package, I haven't even had time if we're being to
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: get a notification.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 7: That you haven't missed much because you know they've got
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 7: Jim Charmers painted as a communist and you know all
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 7: that suff good. I'm interviewing him after this, Well you
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 7: can race down to the news agent and get a
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 7: copy and show him, say what do you think it is?
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, are you actually a communist?
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 7: That's right, that's right. So you know, that's the normal
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 7: sort of very understandable. Actually when we're going to be
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 7: in a big argument, like dealing with a lot of
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 7: this disinformation, so you can't, you know, fight every battle
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 7: all in one budget. You sort of Okay, we're going
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 7: to do this this year and you know we'll think
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 7: about other things later. So yeah, it's a great budget.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 5: You didn't.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 7: I didn't answer the question, but you.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: Are a very good politician and try to skirt around it.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 7: I've completely acknowledged that I did not answer the question
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 7: and don't intend to answer the question.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what, Honesty is the best policy here.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 7: Thank you so much, great gat, great pleasure, great chat.
• 1:13:47
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