Interview with Clinton Maynard on 2GB Drive

Interview with Clinton Maynard on 2GB Drive

Subjects: ‘Help-to-Buy’ bill, ‘Build-to-Rent’, Labor’s failed housing policies

E&OE………

Clinton Maynard

The Opposition's Andrew Bragg joins us. Thank you for your time.

Senator Bragg

Clinton, how are you?

Clinton Maynard

I'm good. What do you see is the main problem with these bills?

Senator Bragg

Well, on the 'Help-to-Buy' bill, this is a policy which Labor announced almost 900 days ago.

Clinton Maynard

Yep.

Senator Bragg

And this gives up on home ownership. This means the government would own 40% of people's houses, and we don't think that's a good idea. We think that the Australian Dream is about people owning houses, not sitting around the dinner table with Anthony Albanese and Clare O'Neil. And I hear, by the by, that Mr. Albanese is not such a great landlord anyway.

Clinton Maynard

In fairness, though, didn't Scott Morison have a similar policy at the last Federal Election?

Senator Bragg

Well, it's a bad idea. I don't think that...

Clinton Maynard

So Scott Morison had a bad idea?

Senator Bragg

Yeah, I'm sure that's right. That the States that have had them, in many cases, have actually wound them back or repealed them. In most cases, they're undersubscribed. But people just don't like the idea of the government owning part of their house. It raises all sorts of difficult issues around what happens if you do renovations or you need to sell or what happens if you can't meet the mortgage. And so we think a much better idea is to let people use their own money in super to get to the deposit bridge.

Clinton Maynard

I think a lot of people agree with you there, that we have this huge allocation. Even younger people may have significant money in super that they could be using for a deposit.

Senator Bragg

Yeah, that's right. We think that the key determinant of your success in retirement is your housing status, not your superannuation balance. But Labor is obsessed with superannuation and all its favourite fellow travellers. On the 'Build-to-Rent' issue, we just don't think that we should be establishing a permanent group of renters in Australia, people who will never own a house. We think that the Australian Dream is about people owning houses, not foreign fund managers.

Clinton Maynard

Wouldn't the Liberals and the Nationals, the Coalition, be better of trying to do a deal with Labor on this to come up with some sort of compromise? Because if Labor ends up doing a deal with the Greens, the Greens want a rent freeze, which I think is complete madness, because I don't know how you expand the investment market with a rent freeze, and they want things like negative gearing gone.

Senator Bragg

Well, it would be unconstitutional. I mean, the Commonwealth could not create a rent freeze. We don't regulate rents at the Commonwealth level. But we are not in favour of policies which take away the Australian Dream. We're not in favour of government owning houses. We're not in favour of foreign fund managers owning 'Build-to-Rent' houses. So there's no alternative for us, Clinton. We have to be opposed to these bills. And our job over the next few months before the election is to articulate a broader policy on housing, which we have under development now.

Clinton Maynard

Can you also hold the Prime Minister to account on, and they have made promises with reducing the number of migrants coming here? Because even with the figures that were released, I think it was a fortnight ago, showed despite the government saying they are reducing numbers, those numbers aren't coming down yet. And we know that is contributing to the housing shortage.

Senator Bragg

Yeah, it is. And there's always been a nexus between the amount of people coming into the country and how many houses you're building. But under this government, they've had more than a million people come in since the election. They've only built a couple of hundred thousand houses. You've really got to keep the supply up if you want to have more migration. Now, unfortunately, house construction has collapsed from about 220,000 houses seven years ago to just 160,000 houses this year under Labor. So it's things are pretty crook.

Clinton Maynard

This is all before the Senate now Andrew, thanks for your time.

Senator Bragg

Thanks, Clinton.

[Ends]