EO&E

GRAEME GOODINGS:

Joining me now is Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. Angus, good morning to you.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Great to be with you, Graeme.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

Now tell us, both the Coalition and Labor have announced big spending programs. Why should voters choose yours rather than the Government's?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, the first point I'd make is that we've been squirrelling away, making sure that any wasted money is kept for paying down debt and for initiatives like this. Over $100 billion of spending since Labor has come to power that we just think is not appropriate spending at a time like this and that's enabled us to provide two initiatives we announced over the weekend. The first is to bring back the low to middle income tax offset. So, that's a tax offset that will give $1,200 in the next financial year to 85% of all taxpayers. The hardest working Australians who are really struggling right now to make ends meet. It's recognising we've got to get them through Labor's cost of living crisis to the other side as we get the economy back on track. And then the other important initiative is for first home buyers, providing them with interest deductibility on their tax. That'll provide up to $12,000 of benefit to someone who is a first home buyer. We know the dream of home ownership is slipping away for so many Australians. This is about getting it back onto the table. It'll be new homes we're focused on here. So, it's all about getting more supply into the market, giving the builders and developers the certainty that they will have a market for first home buyers when they build these homes and ensuring that we've got affordability for first home buyers who, as we all know, are giving up on that dream in many cases. And that's unacceptable from my point of view, which is why this is such an important initiative.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

There are claims that your initiatives will simply increase demand in an already restricted housing market. It'll inflame inflation and push prices even higher.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, that's the sort of thing you'd expect the Labor Party to say. I know they're saying it, but let's be clear. This is about new homes. This is restricted to new homes. So, it's about getting new homes built and giving first home buyers the opportunity to buy those homes. And we know by getting more supply into the market and giving first home buyers the opportunity to get into those homes, making them affordable for them, then not only can we get more homes, we can get more home ownership for young Australians. And that's my focus. I firmly believe that home ownership should be a choice that every Australian has available to them should they choose to do it. We know it's highly correlated with raising a family. It's highly correlated with a good retirement if you own your own home. This is incredibly important to what it is to be Australian, in my view. And that's why making sure it's affordable and we have more supply coming into the market. We've also announced important initiatives to bust the infrastructure bottlenecks that are holding back home building. To get 400,000 more apprentices into the marketplace. All of this is about making sure that we get those extra homes and that young Australians can afford them.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

So, what's to stop property developers raising prices in response to the new tax incentives?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, it's new houses, so it'll get more supply into the market. And so it's very hard to raise prices if there's more supply coming into the market. And that's what we need right now. As I say, this is absolutely focused on those additional homes that we want to see. Where the Housing Industry Association has said this will bring extra 30,000 homes into the market. We know a developer and a builder doesn't need every home that they build to be underwritten by a sale on the other end before they build it. But if a portion can be, then it can make a real difference. And that's why we know extra homes will get built alongside the other initiatives we're taking to make sure we get extra supply into the marketplace.

GRAEME GOODINGS: I can see the benefit in boosting short-term ownership, but what about improving housing affordability long term?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, this is not a short-term initiative. This is an initiative that will be permanent. It's for five years for the first home buyer and they're the hardest years. When you buy a home, it's always those first five years that are going to be the most difficult for most families. And that's why we're doing this. But over the longer term, it's important we do a whole series of other things. Making sure, as I say, that we bust these infrastructure bottlenecks. Water, electricity, roads are holding back housing developments right across the country. I see that wherever I go across our country, that infrastructure bottlenecks are holding us back. That's why we've put $5 billion aside to bust those infrastructure bottlenecks to get more houses into the market. We know that the CFMEU is making it more expensive to build not just infrastructure, but houses for many Australians. And it's time that the cartel, the deep criminal links that exist in that organisation that it's time to bring that to an end. We'll deregister the CFMEU, we'll bring back the tough cop on the beat, the ABCC, and we'll introduce racketeering laws which will ensure that the criminal behaviour that we have seen from that organisation comes to an end. We know that is costing all Australians right now, and particularly those wanting to buy a home.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

It's going to cost Australians billions of dollars into the future. We're facing a trillion-dollar debt. There's nothing, there doesn't appear to be anything in the policy of the Coalition to suggest that we can reduce that debt into the future.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, that's not right, Graeme. Here's the important point. We've opposed over $100 billion of bad Labor spending. 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines that we're not going to need under our energy policies. So called manufacturing policies, billions and billions of dollars where the projects they're focusing on are not even in Australia. I mean, west coast of the US was the first of the project for this program for quantum computing. I mean, that's not where we should be putting our money. We don't need to be growing the public service at a time like this. You don't need to have a bigger team to have a better team. We want to have better public services, but that doesn't mean you have to have a bigger public service. So, these are areas we're focused on. Some have criticised that but what it means is we've put aside money to ensure that we can do things like this. We'll also make sure that the commodity windfalls that are so important to this country from iron ore, from gas, from coal, are used in a responsible way. This government has spent those commodity windfalls, they've blown it on their own pet projects. We'll put them aside for paying down debt and for productive economic infrastructure. I mean, this is the responsible economic management that this country needs right now and we've been pursuing that all the way through this term. Some have criticised it, but it means we can afford important initiatives like these.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

A listener wants to know, what is your plan for older Australians struggling to re-enter the housing market?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, that's important too. Getting more supply into the marketplace will benefit all Australians. If we can get those new houses built, everyone benefits. This is so, so important. It's why busting those infrastructure bottlenecks is so important. Having more apprentices that can work in the housing industry, registering the CFMEU that we know is holding back the supply of housing and the supply of infrastructure in this country. These are all initiatives that will help all Australians, not just the first home buyers. We know that there's huge pressure on first home buyers. It's incredibly difficult for them to get into the housing market. That's why we think it's appropriate that they should have access to a portion of their superannuation. They'll put it back into this superannuation over time to buy that house. But all benefit from making sure that we get more housing into the market. And that is a strong focus for us.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

Your proposed cutting of fuel excise for the next 12 months has been pretty well received. Why not bring that in permanently?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, at the end of the day, we don't want a permanent cost of living crisis. Labor think that there's going to be a permanent cost of living crisis under them. Well, they won't be under us. We've got to bring that to an end. We've got to beat inflation sustainably. That means cutting red tape, doing a lot of the things I've just been talking about. We've got to boost growth and back small business in this country. It's why we're providing investment incentives for small businesses to invest in their business, which invests in their communities and the economy. It's why we're fixing the energy market, bringing down the price of gas by ensuring that Australian gas is working for all Australians, fixing the housing market and I talked about it because that's what we've been talking about today. All of that while we're being responsible with the budget, making

sure that we don't spend money where we don't need to, making sure that we don't make government bigger than it needs to be. And I think that balance ensures that we can deliver for all Australians.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

Why are we not hearing more about the Coalition's plans for our future energy needs, in particular nuclear energy?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we've talked a lot about it and we'll continue to. But don't listen to the Labor lies. I mean, this is the point. I have never seen lies like we've seen in this election campaign. I just heard an ad on your station lying about the cost of our energy policy. Let me tell you, our policy will be 44% less than Labor's. The only policy that's going to cost $600 billion is Labor's policy and they are lying to the Australian people because a renewables energy policy will fail. It is failing in front of our eyes right now. No state will understand this better than South Australia, where we have seen a complete failure of policy where renewables can play a role, make no mistake about it, an important role. But a renewables only strategy is unbelievably expensive. And we've seen that in independent modelling done by credible energy economists who know what they're talking about. And a 44% reduction is what you will get if we can get baseline zero emissions power into our system, underwriting the critical 24/7 demand that we have from aluminium smelters and data centres and so on that are crucial to our economy.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

Successive polls are saying that Labor will be returned if with a reduced majority, or in fact, no majority, and it'll be a hung parliament. You have three weeks to turn it around. What can you do?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we'll continue to talk about how dangerous Labor is for Australia. We can't afford another three years like the last three years. And importantly, as you just said, there's a very real prospect that you'd have a hung parliament which would result in a Labor-Greens coalition. We're already starting to see what that would mean for older Australians for instance. They will tax unrealised capital gains. They will no doubt come after more taxes. We saw they promised before the last election, not just a $275 reduction in electricity bills, which of course hasn't transpired, they promised cheaper mortgages and they promised there wouldn't be any changes to superannuation or taxes. They've done the exact opposite. I have no doubt that they will continue to do that. This is a Labor Party that when it runs out of its money, and it clearly has, it'll come after yours.

GRAEME GOODINGS:

Angus Taylor, thanks for your time today.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Great to be with you.

ENDS