Radio interview - 4CA Cairns

MURRAY JONES, HOST: Well, housing security is just so important and there's certainly been a lot of talk, obviously, about youth crime in the state election, which is about to occur. And of course, those formative years, if you're in a household where you might be subjected to physical, emotional, sexual abuse, drug abuse, the whole lot, can set you on the wrong path. But a bit of housing security can just make all the difference, particularly for young people and their start in life and, you know, for younger people that are having kids, having some form of security, because so often the kids just come along. It is so important and I think this is really exciting. There's been a lot of talk about this one for a while. I believe it's on the old drive in site to the south of Cairns at Woree. But a 490 home social housing plan for Cairns, around about $390 million has been poured into it from the State, the Federal, and of course, actually some private investment as well. It's very exciting. We're about to find out some more about it because the sod turning is about to occur. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins me this morning. G'day Albo. How are you today?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G'day Murray. I'm very well and I'm looking forward to be being back in Cairns again this morning with Matt Smith, of course, our fantastic candidate for Leichhardt, but also with the Queensland Premier, Steven Miles, and with some of my Ministerial colleagues as well. There's going to be a big cast there this morning because this is the largest ever social and affordable housing project conducted in Queensland. 490 homes is a major investment and it will make such a positive difference there in Cairns, It will, of course, create many hundreds of jobs during construction, but importantly as well, leave a real legacy.

JONES: And look, a significant project. And it looks like, you know, there might be that sod turning with you today, but also, you know, obviously there's going to be quite a bit of projects there. There's 245 social, 223 affordable and 22 specialist disability apartments. There's a real need for, in all those areas Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: That's right and that's why this is such an exciting project. Construction begins on a major scale next week. We'll have the sod turned today. I wanted to, I'm on my way to the QUAD Leaders' Meeting with President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida and Prime Minister Modi of India, in Delaware, President Biden's home state, will be over this weekend. But I wanted to come by Cairns because I really wanted to show how significant this project was and how exciting it was. It's part of our $32 billion Homes for Australia plan. Some of that agenda has been blocked by the No-alition, I'm calling it. The Liberals, the Nationals, One Nation and the Greens in the Senate blocking the Help to Buy scheme that would help more Australians into home ownership. But this scheme today that we're conducting is about more social and affordable housing. Including that specialist housing for people with a disability is really important. And that's one of the reasons why today is such an exciting announcement for Cairns.

JONES: And look, it's one of the key tenets of economics. It's something that I've always understood and I think it's something that you'll very much see and will have seen in the US. When you get that difference between the haves and the have nots, it generally makes for such an unhappy society, the more you can bring from the bottom up and actually have that larger middle class as a whole, the community, and of course, the country is so much happier. And I guess these type of projects for people that are in, you know, in really difficult situations when it comes to housing, it helps to bring up that bottom there. And I think that's a very important tack to take.

PRIME MINISTER: That's exactly right. And that's why, for example, we changed the tax cuts earlier this year to address low and middle income earners who were going to miss out on the tax cuts. Lowering that top, the marginal rate, the first one from nineteen cents to sixteen cents, was the right thing to do. It's made a real difference. And it's the same principle here behind helping people, whether it be into social housing or our Build to Rent scheme we're also trying to get through the Senate, that's about private rentals of affordable housing. But also we want to help people in the home ownership as well. And that's what our Help to Buy scheme that's been blocked in the Senate is about, making sure that people can have that shared equity so that essentially if you buy a place that cost $500,000, if the Commonwealth owns $200,000 of that, then you're paying a mortgage on $300,000 rather than half a million. Now, that obviously means the payments are less, the deposit is less. It's an important thing to be able to provide that assistance. Our First Home Guarantee scheme has helped 120,000 Australians, more than double who were helped under the period of the last Coalition Government. So, it's been a real success as well. And we want to do what we can right across the board. More Australians into home ownership, more affordable private rentals, but also more social and affordable housing as well, through the public sector.

JONES: And Clare O'Neil actually is going to pay me a bit of a visit today, so I might talk a little bit more about that and, of course, the issue of homelessness. While I got you, I just want to quickly talk about something that I picked up on yesterday. Obviously Cairns, because of our proximity to Papua New Guinea, very keen to see if we can maybe work in with our friends up the road when it comes to NRL and a team in the NRL. I believe that you kind of hinted yesterday that there's some talks in progress and I don't know whether it includes Cairns, but of course, that's the angle I'm getting at here. PNG 2028, they could be in the NRL, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: They could be. And we continue to have discussions with the Australian Rugby League. It would be fantastic to have a PNG team in the NRL. We know that no country on earth loves their rugby league like PNG. One of the things that happened when I went through and walked the Kokoda track in the lead up to Anzac Day that I spent at the Isurava Memorial with Prime Minister Marape, is you'd walk through, over the three days of our walk, you walk through really thick, dense forest and emerge into a little village and there'd be kids wearing Queensland State of Origin jumpers or Cowboy jumpers or Broncos jumpers and a few Rabbitohs jumpers as well. And they just love their rugby league and it shouldn't be seen as just about supporting an elite team. It's about how you get economic development, how you improve education, how you give support to the economy of PNG. And that's why they're looking at having the team based in Port Moresby. But no doubt there would be connections there with Cairns. We know there's a lot of the diaspora, of course, from PNG in Far North Queensland, of course, the Torres Strait, Saba Island there you can see PNG. It's just a few kilometres away. So we know that there would be close relationships. I spoke with the Cowboys last week and good luck to them this weekend. They are looking at a women's team to be based in Cairns as well. And we had discussions there with the Cowboys, who, of course, represent very strongly the North Queensland region, but of course, they're based in Townsville at that magnificent stadium there. But it's a rugby league heartland, Queensland, there's no question about that.

JONES: And looking at a great opportunity economically as well. Be careful, Prime Minister, those Papua New Guineans, they might get a bit of a taste for rabbits, though, so you be warned.

PRIME MINISTER: Look, the old Rabbitohs. Thank goodness that the Tigers are in the comp, given we finished 16th out of 17. It was not a great year for the Rabbitohs, but we look forward to actually getting some more players from our first team on the field next year. Campbell Graham didn't trouble the scorers for the whole year, he was out, and so many injuries really cost us.

JONES: There's always next year.

PRIME MINISTER: Indeed. Absolutely. Great thing about rugby league, there's always next year.

JONES: Well look, I should let you go because I know you've got to get on the plane and head to Cairns. Great to hear about the anti fraud draft legislation that's come up. I spoke to Stephen Jones about that a few days ago. When it comes to transparency and, of course, accountability online and social media, we might leave that as a subject for another day, but look, great to talk to you this morning. Looking forward to your visit to Cairns. An important, you know, I guess, sod turning today for this social and affordable housing. On the way to Delaware in the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as always, great to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time this morning.

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Murray.

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