Doorstop interview: Housing Affordability

Well another day, another Coalition attack on Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.

 

Malcolm Turnbull has got no authority. He has got no political authority, he has got no moral authority, and he has got no intellectual authority in relation to his so called government.

 

This is an absolute rabble of a government.  They are carving each other up day in day out. Disunity is death and these people are walking corpses. This is a terrible government, the sooner we get to an election the sooner we can concentrate on the real issues for Australians. That’s jobs, infrastructure, health, education, getting proper housing and TAFE policies right throughout the country.

 

This is a bad government and they are just not cutting the mustard.

 

JOURNALIST: What’s your response to allegations that Sam Dastyari warned Huang Xiangmo that his phone was likely to have been tapped?

 

CAMERON: Well all I know is what I have read this morning and the statement that Sam Dastyari has put out. I don’t know any more than that and you have to ask Sam Dastyari. He has put a statement out so that’s all I know about it.

 

JOURNALIST: ASIO briefed senior ALP figures on Huang Xiangmo and on other concerns that they had, was that ever passed on to you?

CAMERON: How do you know that?

 

JOURNALIST: Well that is what we were told in the Fairfax story

 

CAMERON: Well that’s what you were told by the Fairfax press? Oh well that would be really authoritative! Look I have not received any information about any security issue.

 

JOURNALIST: The Family Matters report that came out today said that the rate in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are being removed from families is escalating to a National crisis and  now they are trying to predict that rate will triple in the next twenty years. What’s your response to that and what does that demand of policy?

CAMERON: I agree with that. I think there is an urgent need to look at the Closing the Gap issues more effectively than the Turnbull government has been doing it.

 

There is another report that came out yesterday similar to that which is the Shelter Report that indicates that if you are on a single pension in Australia you can’t afford to rent a home anywhere near any of the cities in Australia.

 

This is a housing crisis. This government just doesn’t have any decent policy on it.

They need to deal with negative gearing, capital gains tax, they need to have a look at how we can get more investment into housing.

 

These are key issues and there are a couple of other reports that have come out recently on skills and training in this country, we are falling down the ladder in terms of skill acquisition in this country and this is a government that just cannot get its act together on any of the real issues that improve the productive performance and the capacity of our economy to compete internationally.

 

They are really a bad government with a Prime Minister that has got no authority, no credibility, a weak man with no future.

JOURNALIST: the inaugural..(inaudible).. Survey came out today and found that 50% of students in Australia struggle with paying rent and that 90%struggle to buy essential materials like textbooks. Do you think we are failing students in that regard and what does that demand?

 

CAMERON: Well I think we are failing most people on housing. I mean housing has just become a commodity.

 

This government has not been able to deal with the escalation in prices, the government has no policy to try and deal with housing availability.

 

It’s not only students that are suffering, it’s older women in this country that have got  significant problems accessing housing, it’s young people coming out of out of home care who end up on the street s and many of the NGO’s are telling me that these young people are being groomed on the streets.

 

This is a crisis for housing in this country and this government just cannot concentrate on any of the key issues that are important to Australians.

They don’t concentrate on jobs, they don’t concentrate on health, education or any of the issues that make a difference in this country. They are just hopeless.