Doorstop Interview - Canberra

ALICIA PAYNE, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Good morning, everyone. I’m Alicia Payne, the member for Canberra, and I’m so pleased to be here in Higgins this morning with Housing Minister Clare O'Neil and Skills Minister Andrew Giles. And we've been talking with Caitlin and Poppy from Hayl Electrical. Poppy is an apprentice, and hearing about how our policies have helped her get into the electrical apprenticeship that she had dreamed of.

Obviously, building houses is a big job and it takes a lot of different skills. Every house takes around 30 different trades to be built, and that's why our Government is helping Australians get the skills that they need to build the homes that we need. I've been hearing in my community how Fee-Free TAFE has made such a difference to people who've wanted to get those skills for a new job or take a new career or start in their career, and it's been a wonderful thing that has enabled people to do things that they might not otherwise have been able to. Also, our $10,000 incentive for apprentices has helped people to get into the jobs to help build those homes, and that's what we're here to talk about today. So, I will hand over to Minister Giles.

ANDREW GILES, MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING: Thanks very much, Alicia. It's so good to be here with you, such an amazing and effective representative of our national capital in the Parliament, and of course with Housing Minister Clare O'Neil. Today, we’ve got some great news in that our Key Apprenticeship Program for housing in just 10 months has had 25,000 new apprentices sign up to fantastic careers of contribution. And this is so important because, of course, when the Albanese Government came into office, we faced the worst skill shortages Australia had endured in half a century – the second worst across all of our advanced economies. And this was really damaging our national prospects in so many areas, none more so than housing, which is, of course, an absolute focus of our efforts, led so ably by my friend Minister O'Neil.

We know there isn't a silver bullet to this skills crisis. It's about doing so many things with a laser-like focus. Fee-Free TAFE has had a huge impact – hundreds of thousands of enrolments, thousands of them in construction courses. So many other efforts around targeting our migration program, so skills assessments happen more quickly. But most importantly, we're looking at the apprenticeship pathway, and really targeting our efforts to make sure that more people can get into an apprenticeship, and critically, that more people can finish it.

Now, that's what this Key Apprenticeship Program is all about. Payments made to the business owner – the small business owners – to incentivise them to take on the cost and challenge of hiring an apprentice, but a payment made over the life of the apprenticeship so that people can get support, not just to start, but to finish. To be rewarded at increments from six months, 12 months, 24 months, all the way through to completion, because we don't just need more people to start their apprenticeship, we need to make sure that they get every support to finish. And it's fantastic to see more women in the trades. And to meet Caitlin and Poppy, to hear the story of this business and this young woman starting her career of contribution, is absolutely inspiring.

Master Builders tell us that for every qualified tradesperson, we will build 2.4 homes. Poppy today is well on her way to making that contribution, building a great career for herself, inspiring other young women into the electrical trades, and helping out with the enormous task that Minister O'Neil is building towards every single day. Clare.

CLARE O’NEIL, MINISTER FOR HOUSING, HOMELESSNESS AND CITIES: Thank you so much, Minister Giles. And I really want to thank Caitlin and Poppy, these wonderful and inspiring people who are helping us with our big national challenge of building more homes for Australians. They have a great story about how Poppy got her apprenticeship, which I hope she won't mind me sharing. They met at the pub. It's one of the most Australian things I've ever heard. But talking to these incredibly empowered women who are doing such important work for the country, it's the highlight of my day so far.

Now, we've got a housing challenge confronting our country that's been cooking for 40 years. And the basic problem is something quite simple: for 40 years, we haven't been building enough homes. And for Australians at home who are wondering why we're seeing home ownership rates crashing through the floor for young people, why we're seeing rents rising too fast, and why we're seeing that most distressing signal of the housing crisis – that is, an increasing number of Australians without a roof over their head – at the end of the day, this all comes back to the fact that we need to build more homes for Australians. If we want housing to be attainable and affordable for ordinary Australians, we've got to build, build, build. And that's exactly what our government is doing. We've set a big aspirational target of trying to build 1.2 million homes over five years. We're back in the game of building homes ourselves, rolling up our sleeves, and building 55,000 social and affordable homes right around the country.

Now, these are big challenges. We've got a 40-year-old housing crisis in our country for a reason. It is very difficult to resolve what's going on in home building. But we are seeing really remarkable progress, partly because of the work of fantastic people like Caitlin and Poppy. We're starting to see the housing market and housing supply lift in the way that it is needed. We've seen a 26 per cent improvement on commencements year-on-year. When we came to government, that number was declining by almost 30 per cent – some really important and welcome signs, but the work that we are doing does not stop with this budget. We are, without question, the most bold and aspirational government on housing that our country has had in 70 years. We started that work in 2022, we built on it in the Budget a couple of weeks ago, but there's a lot more work to do and we're excited to get into it.

JOURNALIST: So the 25,000 apprenticeships in the last 10 months, how does that compare to the, say, previous 10 months before that? Is this really boosting that number?

GILES: It is boosting the number. One of the challenges here is this is a very targeted program, so comparing apples to apples is difficult when it comes to the NCVER data. What we know is that these are numbers that we are really pleased with. We also know that there is more to be done, and we've got to tackle this skill shortage by looking at every possible angle, but building this program to get more people starting building apprenticeships, but critically, enabling more of them to finish, which has been a long-run challenge in Australia. These are numbers that we're really pleased with.

JOURNALIST: And those 25,000 right around the country, is there any anywhere particular where we've seen a big boost, like here in Canberra?

GILES: There have been some variations around the country. There was a really strong pickup initially in Victoria and also in the Hunter region, but we're seeing good numbers right around the country. And I think when people hear stories like the one of Poppy, they see not just a career, but support to build that career that the Australian Government, that the Albanese Government, is really committed to, making sure that when someone starts an apprenticeship, they get all the support they need to finish. And indeed, that their employer, and that they're – overwhelmingly in building and construction, these are small businesses – get that additional support to make sure that apprenticeship relationship is really nurtured.

JOURNALIST: Just got some for Minister O'Neil as well. Fresh data from the ABS shows total building approvals fell by 3.4 per cent in April, and the private sector home approvals fell by one per cent. Are you concerned by that?

O’NEIL: The numbers that came out yesterday are showing that the Government's really continuing to make progress on building more homes for Australians. If I could take you back to the year-to-year numbers, this shows that we've got about a 10 per cent improvement on approvals in the data that came out yesterday. That's off the back of a really big increase the year before as well. Now, no one's saying that we've won this war and that everyone can pack up and go home, we've still got a lot of work to do, but these numbers are a really positive sign. They're also the first numbers that have come out since the war in Iran began, and that's of course a big concern for me. We've got a few quite challenging headwinds facing us on housing supply at the moment, being interest rates and what's happening with conflict overseas. So it's really good to see that we're seeing positive improvement here, but still a lot of work to do.

JOURNALIST: And you still think the Housing Accord target is achievable with those numbers?

O’NEIL: We're continuing to work towards it. We set targets because targets drive change. And I would say the answer to this is not to reduce our national aspiration, it's to work harder to get here. If you don't mind me saying, you know, the approach that was taken before we came to office is not the right one. That's the Commonwealth crawled into a ball saying that we can't do anything about what's going on in housing. Our Government fiercely refutes that. Our housing crisis is affecting the lives of millions of people around our country, and that's why we are throwing absolutely everything at this challenge.

JOURNALIST: And are you able to give some clarity around some confusion, or I guess, some of the Opposition I guess, what they've been talking about –

O’NEIL: Politicking?

JOURNALIST: Yeah, about granny flats, I guess, what is the situation here? If you've got an existing title and then you build a granny flat?

O’NEIL: So that's actually one of the examples that's called out in the Budget really specifically: a granny flat's not eligible for the new arrangements. But if I can just say, just reminding your viewers at home, we want Australians to build more homes. We want them to get ahead. And if young people want to invest in property, we will back them 100 per cent, but they've got to build a new dwelling for the country. So that's where the tax arrangements will come in.

JOURNALIST: The Opposition says you haven't been clear around that. What do you make of those criticisms?

O’NEIL: Look, I think the Opposition are doing everything they can to avoid tackling the real point here, and that is that our changes will absolutely open up home ownership to tens of thousands of Australian families. The main impact on housing of what the Government is doing here is leveling the playing field for first home buyers and getting 75,000 rental households, as of today, into their own home. That is a fantastic thing for them and a fantastic thing for our country.

JOURNALIST: And just some clarity, so if a new townhouse on an existing block is built, can you negatively gear that under the changes?

O’NEIL: So, the general principle is that if this is genuinely a new dwelling, then you'll be able to use the new tax arrangements, that is, you'll be able to negatively gear that property, and you can choose which CGT rate to select. The Budget is pretty clear about what this means. If it's a house that you knocked down and build two houses in its place, that will be eligible. If you buy an apartment off the plan, that will be eligible.

JOURNALIST: If you don't mind both saying your first and last names for the tape, that would be great.

CAITLIN MAGGS, ELECTRICIAN: Caitlin Maggs.

POPPY BENTON, APPRENTICE: Poppy Benton.

JOURNALIST: Thank you. So, I guess, what do you think of this program, and what's it mean for you?

BENTON: I really like the program. It's really good. It's good for like apprentices that are starting out. And because it's like the apprenticeship wages, getting that incentive in the program, it's really good to keep up with like being able to get like all your supplies and everything that you need. It's really good.

JOURNALIST: And before this sort of program came about, was this something you were thinking of, or was this sort of like a something to convince you to take up that opportunity?

BENTON: I don't know, not really. I kind of, it wasn't really about the money, to be honest. It was just about what I wanted to do with my career. And I knew that I didn't want to go into Year 11 and 12. It wasn't something that I was planning on doing, and if I had to do it, I would have done it. But having the opportunity to start an apprenticeship at my age was such a good opportunity because going to Year 11 and 12, it's like you’re doing that to go to uni, and I was not planning on going to uni. So, it was really just about like looking at my career and what my future's going to look like.

JOURNALIST: And how long have you been in it so far?

BENTON: I started February of this year.

JOURNALIST: And what's it been like?

BENTON: It's been so good. Learning all the new skills that you have to have and learn like, on the tools and stuff, like I never was really on the tools at home. Like, sure, I help my dad sometimes, but I never was near tools, around tools, and learning that skill that you have to have to be able to finish a project or finish something is like an achievement to be able to look at what you've done.

JOURNALIST: And what's the program mean for your business and having apprenticeships like this?

MAGGS: I think it's been really good for us, in particular as a small business. When you hire an apprentice, particularly a first year or a young person, you're teaching them a lot of the kind of new skills and they're quite fresh. It is a bit of an investment, and so I think for small businesses in particular, having this extra support and this extra money there is a good incentive to hire young people and get more people into the trade, so for us, it's been quite good.

JOURNALIST: What's business like right now? Is it really busy?

MAGGS: It's crazy. Yeah, it's a bit out of control, but it's good. I mean, as a small business, I'm always complaining, I guess. I'm either too quiet or too busy, so it's very busy at the moment. We've got a lot of projects on the go, so very lucky.

JOURNALIST: And obviously, based here in Canberra, is this sort of like the busiest you've seen it in in your career?

MAGGS: Not really. I've seen a lot of ups and downs, but certainly in the last probably couple of years, this is back to what it should have been. I think there was a bit of a lull there and I think a lot of small businesses were struggling and finding it difficult to keep operating, but at the moment, it's definitely booming for us and a lot of the people we know.

JOURNALIST: Great. Thank you.