Interview with Prue Bentley, ABC Victoria Statewide Drive

PRUE BENTLEY, HOST:  What have you been your big takeouts from the budget so far? Cost of living, the economy, health, housing. Well, the government is at pains to spruik its budget today to find not just public but opposition and crossbench support for its measures. Jenny McAllister is the Assistant Minister for Climate Change. Jenny McAllister, good afternoon.

SENATOR MCALLISTER: Good afternoon, Prue. Thank you for having me on your programme.

BENTLEY: Can we start with this cost of living support? It has been discussed a lot in the wake of the announcement yesterday, but I would like your take on it because this $300 goes to everyone, regardless of their income, and here is Senator Jacqui Lambie's quite colourful response to that last night.

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BENTLEY: So, Jacqui Lambie was clearly not a fan of the $300 cost of living energy support. Would means testing that not have been a simple way to target that funding and reduce the likelihood that the better off would get this payment?

MCALLISTER: Well, Prue, we did go into this budget very conscious that cost of living issues were weighing down on Australians, and that's particularly true, of course, for vulnerable families and households. And there's a lot in this budget that is targeted towards those people. But it's true too for middle Australia. And we wanted to design a cost of living intervention that would actually support quite a broad range of people. We've had a successful experience after the last budget in implementing our last round of energy bill relief. We know that it's a proven mechanism that can work and that we can help people without adding to inflation. In fact, the Treasury analysis was that that actually reduced inflation in the period that it was introduced. And so we're interested in using this mechanism again. And it's on that basis that we decided to apply the $300 rebate to all households because we are a government for all Australians, and it's a budget for all Australians.

BENTLEY: Isn't it though a bit strange to be handing $300 to people on high incomes, $200k plus?

MCALLISTER: Look, we recognise that Australians are under pressure up and down the income scale, and we're interested in helping as broad a range of people as we can. And the advice to us is that the most efficient and most effective way of providing this relief is to provide it broadly, and so we're doing that as simply as we can by applying a credit to everyone's bill via their energy retailer, instead of inventing some new, quite complicated and potentially costly system to provide the relief.

BENTLEY: If people who don't need it then go out and spend an extra $300, won't that put pressure on interest, on the inflation?

MCALLISTER: Look, the advice to us was that this will reduce pressure on inflation. And I think the Treasurer put it quite neatly earlier today, simply observing that an ordinary person will understand that if we can get rent down or the cost of bills down, then that actually does reduce inflation in the economy.

BENTLEY: If that is not true of this, and interest rates are put up by the end of the year, that will be disastrous for, for your government's re-election chances. Is this a big gamble for you?

MCALLISTER: Look, we put the Budget together with the national interest at the front of our minds, and so we're not really thinking about the politics. Of course, the government respects the independent role of the Reserve Bank and we wouldn't speculate at all about decisions that they might take. But the advice to us is that the budget measures that we're implementing, particularly in relation to the electricity bill rebate, will put downward pressure on inflation and at the same time give us the opportunity to provide much needed cost of living relief for a broad range of Australians.

BENTLEY: I'm speaking with Jenny McAllister, who's the Assistant Minister for Climate Change. Now, housing affordability was a centrepiece of the budget as well. There's an additional $6.2 billion in housing, and I see it also includes a billion dollars this financial year for states and territories to build more homes. Now, we are seeing a lot of builders going bust so who’s build those homes?

MCALLISTER: We're doing a lot of work with the building industry and with states and territories to make sure that we've got the right settings in place to bring through the level of construction that we need. And you're right that housing is a huge focus in the budget. It's an area that was really neglected over the last decade by the Coalition. In fact, in their period of government their essential view was that this was not a role for the Commonwealth, that this was the responsibility of states and territories. That is not the view we take, and Minister Collins, of course, has been incredibly active in building up a programme of activity. You're right that there's $6.2 billion in new investment in this budget to bring more homes more quickly. But that's just part of a much larger programme.

We need states and territories to build the roads and sewers and energy and water infrastructure that we need to bring these houses on. We need to train more tradies and that's why we've got the 20,000 fee-free TAFE places. We want to make sure that people who are renting are able to afford their rent and we're delivering the second increase to Commonwealth rent assistance. We're really focused on this area because we hear so clearly from our communities that it's an area of significant importance to them.

BENTLEY: There was a little more information about the future made in Australia plan, which was announced earlier in the year and a lot of people were questioning, you know, exactly how it was going to work. It's going to be tax incentives, as we understand, for certain industries. How will it work?

MCALLISTER: It's a little bit broader than that, but you're right that the tax incentives are at the heart of this. You know, we are at the start of one of the most important economic shifts, internationally and locally, and there are huge opportunities for Australians and Australian businesses in that shift. Australia has unique advantages. We have land, we have renewable resources, we've got a stable investment environment and we've got plenty of people who are really skillful and ready to work in these areas. And so a future made in Australia is making sure that all the policy settings across government are in place to attract investment into this incredibly promising area of the international economy. One measure will be to create a new front door for investors, so that if the incoming investment is coming in, we can make it simpler for them to engage with all of the approval decisions across government.

BENTLEY: Sorry, we are looking. Can I just ask about that, because the front door, it sounds really simple, but what does that actually mean? Will there be a new department created?

MCALLISTER: I think we're looking for a single place and we're working through the implementation arrangements where a major transformational investment could receive support to understand the regulatory steps and the approval processes that they will need to go through to bring investment on. And you can imagine how important that might be in some of the regions that we're really thinking about as key to the new low carbon economy. Places like Gladstone, perhaps places like the La Trobe. Big projects where we have the opportunity to really shape the jobs of the future and provide people with good, stable employment and strong industries for the future.

BENTLEY: Is that assured, though? Because I know the opposition has indicated that they will not support this plan. They say it's a handout to billionaires and then the Greens have come out saying that if they are asked to pass this future made in Australia plan, that they will push for a winding back of gas and coal subsidies as well. So, could that scuttle some of your government's plans?

MCALLISTER: Look, we'll always talk to colleagues in the parliament, but it is really very disappointing to see just more negativity from Peter Dutton and the Liberals. They have had two years in opposition and we are still yet to see any really serious vision from them for an alternative future. They have a lot to say about what they don't like about our energy price relief, about our housing plans, about our plans for it for Australia to become an energy superpower. What are they for? We are yet to see it. Peter Dutton has a big chance in the budget reply tomorrow night to lay out his vision. It's probably time to do so.

BENTLEY: Okay, Jenny McAllister, thanks very much for your time this afternoon.

MCALLISTER: That is a pleasure, Prue. Thank you for having me.