MAYOR SUTHERLAND: Well I'd like to thank you all for coming. To be quite honest, I didn't think I'd be standing out here in the bush out here at Caboolture with the Prime Minister a couple of days ago, but nevertheless here we are and what an occasion. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister very much, and the Minister for their work that they've done and Jon [Sullivan], the local member, for bringing this to fruition. This is a huge injection into our local economy.
It's going to be fantastic to have these houses brought forward, it's going to be keep them very affordable and for a council, it's the type of infrastructure that quite frankly we can't afford. We need an injection and this is just the type of injection in this hard infrastructure where the Federal Government can come onboard and help local councils.
And on behalf of Moreton Bay Regional Council, Prime Minister I thank you and your Minister and your local member Jon for your much appreciated support. Thank you very much.
PM: Thank you. Let me just say a thing or two, and I might ask Tanya then to add because this is an important national program as well. Thanks Mayor, and Jon, our local member, Tanya, the Housing Minister. It's good to be back here in Caboolture. I'm a Sunshine Coast lad and we're not far from home and when I see the Caboolture River I know that you're always about another 40 or 50 minutes away from Nambour, depending on the day.
So it is really interesting and important to see the practical difference we can make with housing affordability in this area. The Minister, Tanya Plibersek, has established a National Housing Affordability Fund. We have established it so that we can partner with local governments right around Australia to make a difference in providing affordable local housing. That's what it's all about.
Housing affordability is a huge challenge for many, many Australians, not just here in Southeast Queensland but right across the country.
The practical question is what difference can you make? One of the things that we've done is help with first home buyers with our First Home Savers Account. Another thing we've done is invest significantly in social housing nationwide as part of our National Stimulus strategy, some 20,000 additional units of social housing around the country. Third thing we've done is to establish a National Rental Affordability Scheme, and that's rolling out right across the country as well. And then, this particular fund which is also about housing affordability, and that's where we've partnered with this local council to make a difference here on the ground.
Now you can't simply wave a magic wand and hope that everything comes into being overnight. What you can do however, with a fund like this is make a big difference on opening up developments like this for affordable housing and make them cheaper than they would otherwise be. I've just been talking to the developers, we may be looking at what effectively will be housing which will be cheaper to the tune of $15,000 or even up to $30,000 a hit in this area. That actually makes a huge difference, makes a huge difference to working families. When it comes to dealing with the challenges to the cost of living pressures for working families, making sure we've got affordable housing is a key, key concern.
So with this development I'm told we'll have more that 1,000 units for development over here -
SUTHERLAND: - Over 1,400.
PM: Over 1,400. It's better to be on the underside rather than the overside in what you say. 1,400 units of development. That means 1,400 units of quality, affordable housing very closely linked to the existing central business district of Caboolture. That also makes sense and why the Minister's been involved with the planning process for this as well, because you've got civic infrastructure already in Caboolture, you've got proximity to the hospital, you've got proximity of other facilities, and it means that this community will be able to draw on what exists as the current civic centre of Caboolture as well. And as the Mayor said before, the boost to the rate base boosts also the ability to this local authority to invest in the other needs which you have in this area.
So that's what's happening here at Caboolture and I really thank Jon the local member for being such an active participant in developing this project up. But it's one of about 40 such projects that the Minister has been announcing right around the nation, helping thousands and thousands and thousands of people nationwide have greater access to affordable housing. Affordable housing is fundamental to what we're on about as an Australian Labor Government, affordable housing is a fundamental concern for working families under cost of living pressures. And we're on about making a difference on the ground in local communities like this one at Caboolture and doing it around the country.
Last thing from me before I ask Tanya to add, in terms of cost of living pressures and how we help working families more generally, there's a debate that's underway now about national tax reform. Let me say a thing or two about that as well.
You know recently we've had this thing called the Global Financial Crisis. The Australian Government took strong and decisive action to protect the Australian economy from recession, to protect hundreds of thousands of jobs, and with the result - keeping Australia out of recession in the midst of the global recession, making this economy one of the strongest economies in the advanced world right now.
Yesterday we also took decisive action on tax reform. Decisive action to keep our Government finances strong, decisive action also to protect the future of our Australian economy, but decisive action also to ensure that working families and small businesses get a fair share of the natural resource wealth of our nation, natural resources which ultimately are owned by the Australian people.
And let me recap where this goes in terms of benefits for working families. First of all we lift the superannuation guarantee from nine to 12 per cent, in order to make sure that working people when they retire have a decent retirement income. The second is this, we're offering all 2.4 million Australian small businesses a helping hand with a tax break by funding instant write offs for up to $5,000 in the assets which they purchase. And thirdly, we're also out there creating an infrastructure fund across the nation to support the roads, the rail and the ports that we need to build in the future, in particular to support our major resource states. So in overall terms what we're doing through this policy is bringing into existence a plan which makes it possible for working families, makes it possible for small businesses and all companies in Australia to enjoy the benefits of tax relief on the one hand, and secondly boosting our pool of national savings by adding to our national superannuation reforms at the same time.
And where these two things link is this - it's about working families now, the support they need to obtain access to affordable housing, and also the support they need when it comes to decent retirement incomes later on.
Tanya, can you just add on the housing project and I'll take your questions.
PLIBERSEK: Thanks very much. Look it's terrific to be here announcing another wonderful Housing Affordability Fund project today. The Prime Minister just a moment ago outlined the housing affordability measures that this Government has undertaken including the First Home Owners Boost, the First Home Saver Account, the National Rental Affordability Scheme, historic investment in social housing and very importantly the Housing Affordability Fund.
The Housing Affordability Fund is a $512 million fund and it supports projects like this right around the country. They're projects that have great new homes built, that are more affordable because of the Federal Government's investment but they also have infrastructure benefits for the whole of the local community, and often planning and development benefits for the whole of the local community as well.
Today here, we're talking about a project that will see a new bridge built - a bridge that'll carry cars and pedestrians and bicycles. But there's also a planning a development benefit with half a million dollars invested with the council into a program called Risk Smart, that means that low risk developments, your ordinary suburban homes on your ordinary block can be approved within a matter of days. That benefit will flow on to all of the people in this local government area who are planning a home of their own, which means -
[Train goes by]
PLIBERSEK: - It means that from this project we don't just get the benefit of a bridge for the local community, but also the benefit of speeded-up development assessments for people who are building in this area for decades to come.
As the Prime Minister said, this is only one project of many, many around the country. The thing that they have in common is that they deliver savings at the end of the day for new home buyers. They deliver those savings because homes that come on the market more quickly are cheaper. Developers save holding costs and they're able to pass those savings onto people who are buying homes at the end of the day.
Also, in many cases including in this project today, some home owners will be receiving a rebate. In this case, 100 home owners will receive a rebate of $15,000. There will be people like police officers, nurses, teachers, key workers who work in this local area, live in this local area, will benefit not just by having a cheaper home sooner, but also by getting a $15,000 rebate if they're one of the 100 who apply for that rebate. So thank-you very much Prime Minister for being here today and supporting this great project.
PM: Okay folks, over to you for some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your Treasurer has described your tax review as the most significant economic reform in living memory. Do you agree with that description?
PM: Well it's a significant reform, the Treasurer is absolutely right. The reason is for 20 years now the nation's been debating superannuation adequacy, and finally what we've done is take that rate from nine per cent with the SGL up to 12 per cent. That makes a huge difference for working families when they retire. Second thing we've done is to provide a massive investment when it comes to our long term infrastructure for Australia, that is the $5.6 billion at least we are putting into national infrastructure and third -
[Train passes]
PM: -Infrastructure like that, the train, and they're not cheap okay? And the third is, we are funding for the first time by the way rail projects in various parts of Australia. Australian Governments historically for a long, long time didn't invest in rail. And the third thing is providing much needed tax assistance to small business and tax simplicity to small business. But none of this is possible unless you properly tax the super profits of the major mining companies.
Put those things together, it equals a very significant tax reform but there's still more work to be done.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] some gas projects will go offshore [inaudible]
PM: Well, I've got to say what the Treasurer will be doing is working his way through the detailed implementation of the Super Profits Tax with individual project proponents. I'm confident that the Treasurer will be able to sort out the detail of each of those projects, there are many of them around the country, and he's already entered into extensive negotiations with many of them already, there's still some work to be done.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that businesses will go offshore?
PM: Can I say that you're going to have from various people in the mining sector all sorts of threats in terms of projects not proceeding et cetera. Because the objective of some will be to prevent the Australian people from getting their fair share of the resources which flow from these extraordinary deposits across Australia. I remind everybody, that the natural resource wealth of Australia is owned by the Australian people.
Secondly, I remind everybody that we actually need to see a fair return, a fair share for the Australian people in what comes from those resources, because the Australian people also have enduring needs like in infrastructure, which is very extensive.
JOURNALIST: You talk about the first home owners grant, and the boost to that grant, which pushed prices in this area up by an alarming rate in the last five years. Will your Government abolish the First Home Owners Grant?
PM: I've had many representations on that to date. Can I ask who you're representing today please?
JOURNALIST: Yes, I'm 101.5FM, which is the local community radio station.
PM: That's fine I just wanted to know, because I just noticed you had a real estate [inaudible]
JOURNALIST: I do the property show, any time you want to -
PM: - Okay, I was just checking on who we're representing. That's fine, people have different views on that. You'd be surprised to know I've just come from a Labour Day March where someone said to me will you please increase the First Home Owners Boost in terms of their area. I think we've got the balance right, we think we're doing the right thing in terms of that, the First Home Owners Savers Account and the other individual measures which the Minister ran through before.
Housing affordability is key. Absent this Australian Labor Government, this project would not happen for three years. Absent this Australian Labor Government, the actual unit cost would be much higher than they would otherwise be. 1,400 families will benefit as a result. This is the practical sort of measures we've got in mind for this community.
JOURNALIST: But if the banks don't play ball with you and lend the money, and they're not lending money in this area - they're looking for 10, 15 per cent deposit, unless the Government does something there to change the banks around I can't see personally how these projects are going to go [inaudible]
[Train]
PM: Can I say when I look at companies like PEET that are with us today, I doubt very much whether they would be investing in projects like this if they thought it wasn't going to work. Secondly, the projects that we've backed with the National Housing Affordability Fund around the country, some 30 or 40 altogether, basically they're advancing pretty well. So what I'd say to you sir, as a representative for local interests and I'm somebody who has got his fingers on the pulse, this sort of project I believe works. We make it work better through the investments that we're making. Nothing ultimately provides a single purpose solution for everything, but we've got about three or four separate programs now with one objective in mind: improving housing affordability for working Australians.
JOURNALIST: On the subject of infrastructure, Prime Minister, with another 1,400 families down here, it's going to put extra pressure on the Caboolture Hospital which is already bursting at the seams, it's going to put extra pressure on commuter trains to Brisbane. Are you going to do anything to boost those services in light of projects like this?
PM: Well can I say about the Caboolture Hospital that the reason we have brought in a National Health and Hospitals Network, funded nationally and run locally, is to help with the development of some of our most pressured regional hospitals. At present, the State Governments of Australia are finding it very difficult to fund the future hospital needs of the country. That's because these are so expensive, we have an increasing population, we have an ageing population as well. So what's the deal for the future?
For the future, the Australian Government for the first time will fund - become the dominant funder of the running costs of our public hospital system, for the first time will become the dominant funder of the capital costs, the equipment costs, the teaching and research costs associated with our hospitals across the country. In the past, the only thing the Federal Government did was fund 35 per cent of the running costs.
So for the future, without getting involved in the detailed planning of Caboolture Hospital, what we've got nationwide now is a new agreement with the States and Territories for us to take the dominant burden onto our shoulders for the funding of the future expansion of the public hospital system of Australia. We think that's the right reform, important reform and it dovetails with what the Mayor and the local authority, local Member and the company here are seeking to do in this community - which is to make sure that we've got affordable housing developments, integrated with appropriate planning for the area and integrated also with the necessary long term provision of key services like hospitals and schools.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've just been at the May Day Parade where the unions were voicing their anger -
PM: They call it Labour Day in this country. I think May Day they use elsewhere don't they?
JOURNALIST: Sharan Burrow called it May Day.
PM: We can each use our language. It is May -
JOURNALIST: The unions were very anti-privatisation. What's your feeling about the Queensland Government's privatisation -
PM: Well, I've been asked this many times before. The State Governments make their own calls on these sorts of questions, I'm not privy to the State Government's bottom line in terms of its balance sheet calculations. They make their own decisions, it's highly controversial, you're right to say that, but State Governments ultimately make the call there. Our job is to actually make the overall funding burden faced by State Governments easier. One of the ways in which we are doing that is by investing in the National Health and Hospitals Network.
Left alone, no reform to the health system, the health budgets of the Australian State Governments would crush their budgets entirely in the next 25 years. That is, there would not be a dollar left to spend on anything else other than health and hospitals. That's why we, the Australian Government, are taking that dominant funding burden onto our shoulders, to free up their capacity to invest in other necessary social and economic investments in the future.
One last thing -
JOURNALIST: This project here. What are the total savings going to be for buyers?
PM: I'll turn to the Housing Minister on that because I wouldn't wish to mislead you.
PLIBERSEK: Thank you. The savings come in this development in two parts. The first lot of savings are passed on to all of the homebuyers and they come because this project happens sooner, it means that the holding costs and the expected profit of the company are reduced. The companies estimates suggest that those savings could be $20,000 to $30,000 because the development comes on-line sooner.
On top of the savings that come because this development comes sooner, there will also be 100 lots that receive a rebate of $15,000. That rebate will be targeted in the first instance at key workers, so police, nurses, teachers, other people that are vital to the local community in terms of the work they do but often find it hard to afford a place to buy. So there are savings for the estate as a whole, there are savings for those key workers and there are other benefits for the whole community because the planning and development speeding-up that happens because of Risk Smart will be able to be applied to all future developments in this area. If developments happen sooner, the holding costs are reduced and those savings are passed on to in-time buyers.
JOURNALIST: Do those savings match the $10 million the bridge is going to cost?
PLIBERSEK: The rebate is not the only saving. The overall savings because of the speeding up of this development and many developments like it in what is one the fastest growing local government areas in the country is certainly terrific value for taxpayers' dollars.
PM: And just as we finish on that, Tanya has just referred to these key challenges of housing affordability again. I would note just for the record that the Housing Affordability programs we have out there for the nation have not received any bipartisan support from the other side of politics. Either the National Housing Affordability Fund, the Rental Affordability Fund, also various other initiatives that we've taken to deliver more affordable housing to working Australians.
I think people need to bear this clearly in mind. We have at present an Opposition which seems to be very keen to oppose everything and propose nothing, and to block everything that they can in the Senate. And it brings me back also to the question of the debate we are now having on tax.
The bottom line is this: Mr Abbott seems to be taking the side of the Super Profit for the biggest mining companies, and, sacrificing the interests of working families and better super and tax reform for small business. I don't think that's the right way to go.
And this local area of Caboolture, can I just say with the local member here Jon Sullivan, we're proud to be investors in the region. Our total investment in terms of national stimulus investment is something like $350 million. $195 million to upgrade the Bruce Highway for Caboolture to Caloundra. In education we've funded something like 2,300 computers in 13 schools. $1.36 million for the Morayfield Building and Construction Trades Training Centre. We're investing $104 million in 131 projects in 41 schools under the School Modernisation Program. In our hospitals, someone mentioned the Caboolture Hospital before, we've invested already ourselves some $5.2 million to expand the emergency department of that hospital and build a dedicated paediatric space. We're also investing $53.4 million in the construction of 200 units plus of social housing.
These are good investments in this local community. And your local member here, Jon Sullivan, was out there backing each of them and I thank him for his support. Thanks folks, we've got to zip.