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Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Australian house prices dropping across the country · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. International
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  Speaker 1: correspondence with NZI Insurance. Peace of mind for New Zealand business.
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  Speaker 2: Good from the Murray Old Australia correspondence with us. Hey, Muz.
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  Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Heather.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, tell me about your house prices.
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  Speaker 2: Well, down by an average of 5% across the country.
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  Speaker 2: That's down in six months. Sydney and Melbourne have led
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  Speaker 2: the way. Darwin, the only city, Heather, where prices have
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  Speaker 2: actually increased, and that's very, very modestly. Sydney has led
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  Speaker 2: the way, down almost 9%. That's a real drop, 9%
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  Speaker 2: in six months since March, slightly more substantial than the
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  Speaker 2: lows that we last saw in 2022-23. Melbourne's down 7.2%.
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  Speaker 2: And why? Well, we've had four interest rate rises now
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  Speaker 2: this year, the most recent this week. And that's having
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  Speaker 2: a real impact. It's changing the whole housing market, the
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  Speaker 2: way housing investment purchases are being considered because the tax
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  Speaker 2: arrangements have changed. Plus, of course, economic uncertainty from the
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  Speaker 2: Middle East. Plus, of course, uncertainty about how long we're
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  Speaker 2: going to be getting whacked by these interest rate rises.
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  Speaker 2: Property values are down. In turnover. People aren't putting their
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  Speaker 2: houses up for sale because they're just not sure what
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  Speaker 2: they're going to get.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, fair enough.
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  Speaker 2: I can understand that. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: What's going on with the NDIS? Right.
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  Speaker 2: You and I have discussed before at some length the
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  Speaker 2: impossible bill that's going to be applied to taxpayers unless...
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  Speaker 2: There's some change in the way the National Disability Insurance Scheme,
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  Speaker 2: no one's arguing it's not vitally needed. Of course it is.
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  Speaker 2: But unsustainable increases by the middle of the century will
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  Speaker 2: see NDIS spending, Heather, outstrip defence, education and health combined. Now,
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  Speaker 2: that's just not sustainable. So this is the first tweak
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  Speaker 2: that the government's trying to get through. And it's not
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  Speaker 2: going to happen overnight. But you know, anecdotally, you've got
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  Speaker 2: so many children now who are diagnosed with autism and, and,
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's a very real concern for families up
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  Speaker 2: and down the country. But what they're now going to
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  Speaker 2: have is a $ 4 billion scheme to be administered by
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  Speaker 2: the states. It's going to be called Thriving Children. So
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  Speaker 2: up to the age of nine, they're getting this cohort
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  Speaker 2: of children off the NDIS into this new program called
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  Speaker 2: Thriving Kids. And they're going to have a whole bunch
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  Speaker 2: of new things. For example, the first phase from today,
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  Speaker 2: It's going to be giving support to families. You don't
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  Speaker 2: have to go through the hoops of a diagnosis or
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  Speaker 2: specialist referral. You can go to a GP and, yes, okay,
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  Speaker 2: from next month there's going to be a three-year check
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  Speaker 2: on developmental progress being made by three-year-old children. You don't
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  Speaker 2: have to have multiple hoops to jump through to get
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  Speaker 2: that done. What they're trying to do, Heather... And if
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  Speaker 2: I'm reading it correctly, the kids won't be forced off
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  Speaker 2: this scheme, but it's not going to be on that
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  Speaker 2: NDIS balance sheet. It's going to be taken off that
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  Speaker 2: with a separate program to be run by the states.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the start of what the federal government
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  Speaker 2: wants to have. achieved over the forwards and over, you know,
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  Speaker 2: decades to come. You can't just have willy-nilly people getting
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  Speaker 2: diagnosed with X, Y and Z, just getting placed on
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  Speaker 2: the NDIS and that's set and forget. That can't be
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  Speaker 2: allowed to continue. Simply, it'll just be exploding in cost unsustainably. So,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, no one's going to be kicked off it.
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  Speaker 2: They're just going to have to be tweaked a bit.
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  Speaker 2: And that's from zero to nine. Yeah, brilliant.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that sounds like a fair plan. Thank you very much, Maz.
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  Speaker 1: Appreciate it, mate.
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  Speaker 2: Murray Olds, Australia correspondent.
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