CANBERRA, ACT, Jan. 31 -- The Prime Minister of Australia issued the following media release:
JOHN, HOMEOWNER: My name is John, I recently moved into this house with my family in December - a wonderful Christmas present. But the only reason it's possible is because of one of the programs we had to help support us, the affordability of land, as well as first home owners, and a range of other programs that let us live our dream home. Without those, we would not be standing at our house today. So we're really grateful. And I think our family is too to finally have our own home. It's something I never thought I'd achieve, to be honest. And yet here we are. So it's still a bit surreal, as is today. So yeah, still getting used to the idea. I'm not sure it's really quite fully sunk in yet, but absolutely thrilled to be here.
JOURNALIST: John, was it a sense of relief to finally have a roof over your head, given the current climate of housing across the country?
JOHN: Absolutely, that's, I think, one of the most significant things for us. When you are renting you don't know, contract to contract, where you're going to be next, or how much it's going to cost you as well. And those price rises can be significant. Our last rental increase was significant, and it really reinforced the fact that we're making the right decision undertaking this process. Because, yeah, it was getting very uncertain, very stressful.
JOURNALIST: How hard is it to make the jump from rental, to go from a rental into, okay, now we need to try and save to get that deposit to get the mortgage then underway? That transition from people is quite challenging.
JOHN: Yeah, it was certainly daunting. But I think it was more an administrative process than anything, because you don't, no one really tells you how to do it or what needs to be done. Once we started undertaking the process though, and we did have to save hard, you find out a lot about how much you're spending on things you don't need. But so with all those things, yeah, it was a bit of a jump, but I'd say it's probably more an administrative thing and more daunting before you take that leap, but once you do it, you don't look back.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER:Well, thank you to John and Yolanda, and young Luca, for having us in their home. The security of a roof over your head is so important, not just for housing, but of course, it's a key to educational opportunities. It's a key to people's healthy wellbeing. It's a key as well to people being a part of local communities. And that's why I'm so proud that we are partnering in the first deal with the South Australian Malinauskas Government to deliver some 17,000 new homes, including 7,000 of those reserved for first home buyers. The scheme that's been established by the South Australian Government, during the election campaign, we announced that it would be a model for a national scheme, and that's what we're doing today. This is an agreement worth more than $800 million of partnering with the South Australian Government, making sure as well that we're delivering the right infrastructure so that you not only have a home, you have a quality of local communities being built in Australia's suburbs, but addressing the issue of housing supply as well, which is key. So good for housing supply, good for people's quality of life, good for increasing home ownership and security that comes with that. This is an absolute pleasure. And one of the things about politics is that when you can meet a family like John and Yolanda and Luca, who your policies are making a real difference to - real people and their quality of life on the ground - that's why we do what we do. This is incredibly rewarding, and I want to acknowledge the leadership of Peter Malinauskas. I'll also acknowledge Matt Burnell, our local federal member here as well, who's doing such a terrific job, along with his South Australian Labor Government colleagues here, and hopefully future Labor Government colleagues as well. Going to go to Mali, and then Clare, and then we'll take some questions.
PETER MALINAUSKAS, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA:Well, thank you so much, Prime Minister for being here in South Australia today to announce a nation leading landmark agreement.
Yesterday, we saw the South Australian Government cooperating with the Albanese Federal Government to land a massive deal for health that will improve outcomes for people in hospitals in South Australia. Yesterday was health, today it is a nation leading deal in respect to housing. This is a program that we are able to undertake exclusively because the state government is working collaboratively with the Prime Minister's Government to actually make a difference on the ground to real people's lives. I can't thank John and Yolanda enough for having us here today and sharing your story. It speaks precisely to why we are so focused on housing supply in metropolitan Adelaide. We've got a housing crisis around the country, and if you're not doing something about supply, you're not serious. The only way we take on this challenge is to unlock supply and do it quickly. And what this program is all about isn't just building more homes, but getting on with it and doing it effectively and quickly. John was explaining that this went from a vacant block of land to a slab and a home in the space of five months, because the Government is playing an active role in unlocking this. Members of the Adelaide media pack will recall press conferences not that long ago when we were announcing record land releases the Civil Works investment in water infrastructure that is now delivering homes directly to the people of South Australia, which is why in calendar year 2025, South Australia built more homes than it ever has at any other point in its history. And our objective isn't just to sort of keep the foot on the accelerator, rather, we're going to press down harder. We're going to make sure that that growth and that run rate continues to go up, and we're only able to do that because of partnerships like this one with the Federal Government. This is about more direct delivery of homes, 17,000 including 7,000 for first home buyers exclusively, and then also doing it affordably. There's a range of elements that form part of this $800 million package, but one I can't stress it's important enough around is investments in water infrastructure. As a state government, we are making the tough decisions to make sure that water infrastructure is delivered to the growth corridors, like where we are today, and now the Prime Minister's contribution will see to an acceleration of that in places like Concordia, not too far from where we are now. So this is a genuine collaboration where we acknowledge that the private sector has to partner with government, and state and federal government needs to cooperate to unlock that growth, and now we're going to see the run rate continue to accelerate, which is what we're all about.People around a lot of tables in other parts of the country have been observing the problem of the housing crisis. We're here in South Australia, we're actually making a difference to it by building more homes for more families from more economically diverse backgrounds, so that they can have the aspiration of home ownership becoming reality.
To that end, I can't thank the PM enough. From the outset, the entirety of the time that I've been lucky enough to be in this role, I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to have a Prime Minister who actually appreciates what the states do well, and what the Commonwealth does well, and working out how do we do that together to deliver outcomes. But I really want to thank Minister O'Neil and Minister Champion. If unlocking housing supply wasn't easy, it would have happened a long time ago. I've got a full appreciation of the complexity of these problems, that's not necessarily widely understood, and I can't thank Clare and Nick for working so collaboratively to see South Australia be the first cab off the rank in this regard. Very glad to be here with Matt. I want to wish good luck to James. And most importantly, I want to thank John and Yolanda and Luca for having us here today, we really appreciate it, and we wish you all the very best for your new home.
CLARE O'NEIL, MINISTER FOR HOUSING:Thank you, Premier and what a fantastic day for housing in South Australia. I want to thank Yolanda and John and gorgeous Luca, who have just welcomed us into their beautiful new home. They've spoken to us about the difference that this is going to make to their lives. For the first time having stability, having safety, having security, and having something they can afford financially. This is exactly what we want to see for more people right across South Australia. And that's why we're working so closely with the Malinauskas Labor Government to deliver more housing, and especially more housing for first home buyers in this state. Now, this is a really big deal - $800 million which is going to build 17,000 desperately needed homes right here in South Australia. Importantly, we're reserving 7,000 of those homes just for first home buyers. What you're seeing here is a state Labor government and a federal Labor Government with one unified view. We believe that ordinary Australians should have the ability to get into their own home, and our governments are working closely together to make sure that happens.
JOURNALIST: The announcement in itself is a positive one for first home owners, but the bottleneck still becomes getting those homes up out of the ground with construction delays. How do we solve that issue then?
PRIME MINISTER:Well, we do it through a range of methods - the first is by funding infrastructure. One of the things that has held expansion back into new land releases is that you don't have the water and energy infrastructure built, you don't have your community infrastructure. Too often what has happened is homes have been built in new communities without thinking, 'okay, where do the kids go to school? Where they get their health care? How do they get the services and infrastructure that they need?' What this is doing is funding that. This is us partnering, recognising that we need to do better on that. The second is when it comes to skills shortages as well and labour. Free TAFE is another area where we are partnering with the South Australian Government, delivering an extraordinary number. There's more there - the last figure I saw was something like 600,000 people delivered through Free TAFE. Undertaking courses with skills, going into good quality jobs. The other thing we're doing is prioritising incentives. So a $10,000 incentive in construction, in electrical, in the areas where we really need to do that, and that's meaning that we're addressing those labour shortages, giving people good careers, giving people those pathways - so looking at it holistically is why you need governments that are prepared to cooperate and get things done. As Peter said, the Premier, yesterday we got things done on health with a $25 billion additional injection into our public hospital system around Australia, along with reforms with the NDIS, making sure that it's sustainable and that people get that care that they need when they need it, where they need it. This is an example of us getting on with the program that we were elected on. And Peter, of course, will go to an election reasonably soon as well, and I look forward to continuing to work with him and his team.
JOURNALIST: Where are the other jurisdictions at around the country in this network program to sign up to this?
PRIME MINISTER:Well, they're all very keen, but South Australia's first, to be frank. Give credit where credits due, we looked at the South Australian model in the lead up to May of last year, and said, it works. It works. And we went to a place, you'll remind me of where we went what suburb?
PREMIER MALINAUSKAS: Prospect.
PRIME MINISTER:To Prospect and saw the example of new homes being built, and it being reserved, a portion of them being reserved for first home buyers, how that works financially as well, and it's a model for the country, and it's going to be rolled out. This is the first big commitment - $801 million is a substantial investment right across the board, and it builds on a part of our $45 billion Homes for Australia Plan. That is something that, the previous government didn't even bother to have a housing minister. We've got a housing minister who's knocking on, literally my door, every day with more ideas, more plans, more programs getting rolled out.
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you a question on affordability? There are growing concerns with an interest rate rise when the RBA meets next week. With warnings many households won't be able to cope with the financial pressure, what actions is the government taking to push inflation back down?
PRIME MINISTER:We're continuing to take action. In the December Mid-Year Economic Forecast, we had an additional $20 billion of savings. That brings our savings up to $114 billion since we came to office, making an enormous difference turning, we turned budget deficits into two budget surpluses, and then reduced deficits in the years ahead. But we also have plans to deal with cost of living pressures, the Free TAFE, the $25 price for medicines on the PBS that came in on January 1 - the same price they were in 2004. If you think about it yourself, think about something that you bought in 2004 that's at the same price today. They're not many things. Well, medicines are one of them that are essential. 1800MEDICARE came in there as well. So if there's an issue in this household or any other household, you can pick up the phone, get medical advice on the phone, 24 hours a day. Already, tens of thousands of Australians have benefited from that. The free Urgent Care Clinics where all you need is your Medicare card have been seen by around about 2 million people taking pressure off emergency department, but people getting to see a doctor for free. The 5 per cent home deposits that are making an enormous difference as well. Clare will remind me how many people have taken that up.
MINISTER O'NEIL: 35,000 since October.
PRIME MINISTER:35,000 since October have taken that up. That brings us to around about 200,000 since we came to office have benefited from that. Free TAFE. The 20 per cent of student debt. We are constantly looking at ways in which we can deal with cost of living pressures. It's our number one priority.
JOURNALIST: Can you still, personally, I guess, relate to the majority of the cost of living pressures the majority of Australians are still going through? I know in the past you've said you know what it is like to financially struggle, but in reality, when's the last time you had to worry about paying a bill, or making the mortgage? I mean, do you still have a mortgage?
PRIME MINISTER:The truth is, Prime Ministers are paid a lot of money. I'm paid more money than I could possibly dream of. But when I was growing up, I grew up with a single mum in council housing that became state government housing. My mum was an invalid pensioner, what would now be today, a disability support pensioner. We did it tough. You never forget what it's like, and I've never forgotten where I've come from, and I'm absolutely passionate about helping people who need help. That's why I went into politics to make a difference to people. People who I grew up with, who turned up on the first day of Parliament this year, many of them still live where I grew up. I keep in contact with those people, but the truth is that politicians live a life of relative privilege compared with people who are doing it tough. What our job is to do is to make sure that we're very conscious of the privilege that we have, but to give people that opportunity. That's what drives me. I was the first person in my family to finish school, let alone go to university, and that drives me each and every day.
JOURNALIST: On Thriving Kids, some within the disability community predicted that the rollout of Thriving Kids would be delayed. Many have raised concerns with the ongoing uncertainty around the program. Do you fear that the rollout delay will only add to their concerns?
PRIME MINISTER:No, not at all. We're making sure that we get it right. It'll be rolled out from this year, and will be fully rolled out, fully implemented, on the 1st of January 2028. That's what good governments do. Good governments get the detail right. They make sure they consult, and we certainly are consultative about this. But the NDIS is very important, and Thriving Kids is going to be very important as well. Driven by, of course, Mark Butler, another great South Australian, as well as Jenny McAllister. This will make a difference. We want kids to thrive. We want everyone to have that opportunity to be the best they can be.
JOURNALIST: Packages like this, 17,000 homes, they want to move the needle on supply. What's the Government doing on the other side of this issue, which is demand?
PRIME MINISTER:Well, we have a comprehensive housing plan right across the board. Whether it be supply, of course is the key to dealing with these issues. We also, if you look at demand, with migration, we've cut migration numbers, net overseas migration to almost half of where it peaked. And so we're dealing with that as well. We also have provided record rental assistance support. We're boosting housing supply and public housing as well across the board. Some 55,000 social and affordable homes to make a difference as well. In addition to that, we have programs that were delayed by the Coalition and the Greens getting together in the Senate, such as Help to Buy. That's based on, I know a scheme operates here in South Australia as well, but originally for a long time in Western Australia. And what that enables people to do is essentially have that shared equity in a home and enable them to get into home ownership quicker as well. So we're looking at every possible measure that we can take to make a difference when it comes to housing.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just in terms of the federal opposition, Andrew Hastie withdrawing his hand to run for the party. The Coalition potentially not looking to exist in the future. Are you concerned what that means for democracy on a whole and what it means for how the Parliament will operate?
PRIME MINISTER:Well, they're in shambles, and they're focused on each other and their hatred of each other. We're focused on the Australian people and their needs and the national interest. We're focused on people like John and Yolanda and Luca - how do we make a difference to their lives? That's what we're focused on each and every day. And when Parliament sits next week, we will continue to engage in the full suite of measures. Whether it's Cheaper Child Care, whether it be addressing housing supply, whether it be cost of living pressures on Australians, right through to our place in the world. The Coalition have become a group of people who are just focused on each other and fighting each other. You can't fight for Australians if you're obsessed by fighting yourselves. That is what the former Coalition have become. Liberals fighting each other, Nationals fighting each other, Liberals fighting Nationals, Nationals fighting Liberals, Nationals defecting the crossbench - they are a shambles. And that's what happens when they spent their first term in opposition of being defined by what they were against and not putting forward a positive plan, which is why they were reduced to 43 seats at the election. And now they show no signs of being interested in Australia's future, they're just interested in who sits where on the opposition benches.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect Sussan Ley to actually be across from you when Parliament resumes? Or will be Angus Taylor?
PRIME MINISTER:It could be anyone. They are obsessed by each other. I think that Sussan Ley could rightly look at what occurred on Thursday where you had a funeral to farewell Katie Allen, who was well respected, not just in the Liberal Party, but across the board, and a bunch of blokes organised by a bloke who couldn't hold his own seat, Michael Sukkar, sitting in a house somewhere in Melbourne, plotting to knock off the first female leader of the Liberal Party. And they included people like James Patterson, who is part of the leadership group. He did an interview that morning backing in the leader before he went to a meeting to plot to get rid of the leader. I mean, this is just beyond belief, frankly, and they continue to engage in that sort of self-indulgence. You've seen the rotation of South Australian Liberal leaders here. I don't even know who the leader is now, to be honest. You've seen replacements in New South Wales and Victoria. They're just defined by looking after themselves, not looking after Australians, and they certainly aren't interested in looking after South Australians.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned at all at the prospect of a Angus Taylor led Liberal Party?
PRIME MINISTER:This is a guy who was Shadow Treasurer. I do note, when it becomes farcical, I noticed yesterday that we now have in the deputy leader of the Liberal Party has been appointed as Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Assistant Treasurer, so he's assisting himself. Like it is just beyond a joke now. Like does someone in the Liberal Party not read that media release and go 'hang on, there's something wrong here - how can the Shadow Assistant Treasurer also be the Shadow Treasurer?' It's just a joke. And this is the guy, of course, who went to the election with a $600 billion nuclear plan. Angus Taylor went to the election arguing for higher taxes and bigger deficits. That's what he had at the election. They were going to legislate, if he was Treasurer of Australia, a piece of legislation to increase income taxes, which will be cut this July and next July as a result of what our Government took to our last budget.
JOURNALIST: The funding deal, the health funding deal, at least for South Australia, that was to address in particular the bottleneck of senior patients stuck languishing in hospitals because they're waiting for aged care. Why not invest more, obviously, in the aged care sector to ensure they have somewhere to go, but they're still waiting.
PRIME MINISTER:We are doing that, you bet we are. We had, when we were elected, a Royal Commission was underway. It came down with an interim report from the Royal Commissioners was summarised in the title - 'Neglect'. One word, 'neglect', when it comes to the aged care system. And we legislated, to give credit to Peter Dutton where it's due, he supported the legislation that we passed at the end of 2024. That was the biggest aged care reform this century bar none. A transformational change in aged care, building on the reforms that we put in place already. We've put in place 99 per cent of the time there is a nurse in aged care. We put the nurses back into nursing homes - that's the first thing that we had to do. We had a wage increase so that there were people who could work in aged care, whether it be keeping people in the home or in residences, a pay increase of around about 20 per cent to keep people in that workforce. They were leaving, there weren't people to look after our older Australians. We have millions of additional hours every day of support for people in aged care residences, and we've restructured the system so there's now an incentive to build more aged care homes. We need to do that, but you can't do that overnight. We're doing that, but part of the funding that was allocated, the $25 billion of additional funding, bringing our investment to well over $200 billion over the next period of the five year agreement. Part of that has been identified as dealing specifically with dealing with this issue of older Australians, because they don't have places to go, and addressing that in partnership with state and territory governments. But our additional investment is three times the additional investment from the last agreement that was signed by the Morrison government, which is why this record funding will make a difference. As well as, that comes on top of the $11.5 billion dollars that we've committed just over the forward estimates to primary health care. The 137 Urgent Care Clinics, the 1800MEDICARE system, the $25 scripts, as well as the Medicare Mental Health Clinics, and most importantly, the bulk billing tripling of the incentive, has meant that there are now 3,300 medical centres, many of them will have multiple doctors of course at them, that are fully bulk billed. This time, when it was introduced in November, that figure was under 2,000. So there's been more than 1,300 facilities around the country are now fully bulk built so people can see a doctor for free. Now all of that is about helping people where they need it. It's also about taking pressure of the public hospital system because we had neglect for a long period of time.
JOURNALIST: Premier, the resignation of Andrea Michaels yesterday, when can we expect to hear about a candidate there?
PREMIER MALINAUSKAS: State Executive is meeting this morning. The State Executive opened for nominations pretty quickly yesterday. We're a disciplined, united political outfit. We'll go through a process. And given the proximity to the election, so I anticipate we will have an outcome of that later today.
JOURNALIST: And Andrea Michaels indicated yesterday she was unsure about her future in the Cabinet. Is she someone that you would have wanted to keep in Cabinet for a potential second term in government?
PREMIER MALINAUSKAS: Yes, and that's because I think she's made a good contribution, and that particularly stands out in her role around small business. When we face the prospect of a by-election seven or eight years ago, I recruited Andrea Michaels to our team because I wanted her background in small business. I wanted her experience in that area, and that's where she's made a particularly strong contribution.
JOURNALIST: One Nation has announced they'll be contesting every seat in this upcoming election. What do you make of their rise, I guess, as a party nationally and potentially here as well?
PREMIER MALINAUSKAS: Well, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. We live in a proud, rich, liberal democracy that has diversity of opinions in it, and local parties are welcome to nominate, put their candidates up for election. What I hope, and what I'll be seeking to prosecute across the next seven weeks is the fact that we have the team, we have the culture, and we have the policy to actually get things happening for our state. Which has led to it being, really, frankly, in one of the best positions it's been economically in a generation. That's not an accident, it's a lot of hard work. What sets the South Australian parliamentary Labor Party apart versus our opponents is that we are a genuinely united team that actually believes in a common cause, and then using the power of government to bring it to realisation, to make a difference to people's lives - and we're serious about it. We've got a team of people who are more interested in achieving outcomes than any particular personal ambitions, and I think that's a great credit to the culture that we've been able to create over a sustained period, and it stands in stark contrast to the state Liberal Party, and who knows how it looks in terms of One Nation.
JOURNALIST: In terms of these projects, we know you had to make a tough decision to increase water bills to cover some of the projects. Are we going to have to see any additional increases? And also, what do these loans mean for state debt in South Australia?
PREMIER MALINAUSKAS:We have made tough decisions in respect to unlocking water infrastructure, but now we are seeing the results of it. People actually moving into homes they can afford in metropolitan Adelaide. See, in government, if you acknowledge a problem, you probably need to make the tough decisions to do something about it and we did that. And it hasn't been easy, but it's now delivering outcomes. The fastest housing growth rate we've seen in South Australia's history. It's quite remarkable. And we look at those numbers every quarter. Not the state Government's numbers, we look at Federal Government numbers, we look at numbers coming out of the ABS. We look at what the Housing Industry Association in Australia is saying - they've ranked us number one in the country. The Master Builders, The Property Council ranks us number one in the country. The Business Council of Australia has ranked South Australia number one jurisdiction in the country when it comes to the regulatory environment around unlocking housing supply because they understand how important it is to the economy at large. So this is not the Government marking its own scorecard, it's independent organisations, the ABS, industry associations, pointing to the fact that we've made the tough decisions to get an outcome, and it's starting to bring in dividends. In respect to this program, it all fits comfortably within our numbers. We've delivered budget surpluses. We maintain our discipline to be able to do that. We've delivered four budget surpluses in four years, and we've got forecast surpluses across the forward estimates in accordance with the last NYBR, and we are determined to maintain that fiscal discipline, which means, again, you've got to make choices. You can't promise everything to everyone. We've seen our opponents, in their desperation, start to offer what amounts to electoral bribes, including in the area of water policy, that actually will slow down the very growth we've been able to achieve. And so we're committed to that maintenance of fiscal discipline, which means we focus on the priorities and housing is clearly one of ours.
JOURNALIST: The scenes at the Melbourne movie theatre of Pauline Hanson's movie premiere. What do you make of those wild fight scenes?
PRIME MINISTER: I didn't see them so I can't comment, really. But I understand that there's some cartoon, or what have you. We're a serious political operation in the Government. We're interested in serious outcomes. Pauline Hanson has made a career out of trying to divide people and looking for grievance and never, ever looking for a solution. What we've been looking at here today is a real solution for real people and real families, and that's what my Government's focused on, and I know that's what Peter Malinauskas is focused on as well. Thanks very much.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
