Housing to dominate national cabinet meeting between PM and Premiers
How to fast-track planning and approvals to speed up housing development will be a key part of today's national cabinet meeting in Brisbane. It comes just weeks after the federal government's signature housing bill stalled in the senate.
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TVTranscript
00:00 State and territory leaders as well as the Prime Minister have housing at the forefront
00:06 of their minds as they head towards that National Cabinet meeting in Brisbane this afternoon.
00:12 We know that housing demand in the country is surging but at the same time building commencements
00:17 and approvals are slumping. The PM really wants to turn that around. He says that the
00:24 leaders are all on the same page about needing to boost housing supply in the country. So
00:28 there certainly will be a discussion around reforming planning and zoning laws at National
00:33 Cabinet today. The sticking point for the government has been getting their Housing
00:38 Australia Future Fund, their signature housing policy through Parliament. And the Greens
00:44 have not been willing to support that bill because they want to see some more done to
00:49 support renters. Now they want to see a two-year freeze on rent increases followed by rent
00:56 caps. We could see some changes to renters' rights today including a harmonisation of
01:01 rules around banning no-grounds evictions as well as only allowing one rent increase
01:07 every year. But these measures are already in place around most of the country and the
01:11 Greens certainly aren't impressed. They say that they don't go far enough. We've heard
01:15 from the Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather a little earlier this morning. Here's a little
01:21 of what he had to say. It would be extraordinary, extraordinary if a bunch of Labor State Premiers
01:28 and Prime Minister decided they were going to lock in unlimited rent increases at a time
01:33 when renters are suffering the worst they've suffered in generations. They have the power
01:38 to stop this. I hope today they sit around that table, recognise that there may not be
01:43 a renter in the room sitting around that table, but they represent the one third of this country
01:47 who rents and they deserve representation too. Monty, what else will be discussed?
01:53 Well certainly there will be a few things on the table as well as housing. One of those
01:59 for the last few weeks has been the Prime Minister discussing the possibility of a public
02:05 holiday in the wake of Matilda's success at the World Cup. The Prime Minister said just
02:11 last week that he would raise it with the state and territory leaders at the National
02:16 Cabinet meeting today. But this morning he seems to be getting some cold feet. It seems
02:22 like he's backing away from that public holiday talk. He told a radio station in Tasmania
02:28 that it now won't be discussed at National Cabinet. So that comes after a few of the
02:34 states including Tasmania as well as South Australia, the Premiers there both said that
02:39 they wouldn't be supportive of a public holiday. So certainly it has been a divisive issue
02:47 and one that won't be on the cards at National Cabinet today.
02:51 Monty, the Federal Government is also launching a new plan to tackle domestic violence?
02:55 Yeah, that's right. So the Federal Government has set a target to reduce the number of female
03:01 victims of intimate partner homicide by 25% each year. Now it's part of a new five year
03:09 action plan to address gendered violence and includes a first ever dedicated Aboriginal
03:15 and Torres Strait Islander action plan. Now in the year to July 2021, 25 women died at
03:23 the hands of their current or former partners in Australia and Indigenous women are six
03:29 times more likely to be victims of homicide due to domestic violence than non-Indigenous
03:36 women. We've heard from the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, Justine
03:41 Elliott, earlier today. Here's what she had to say.
03:44 We know those rates of domestic violence are too high. When we have the case of one woman
03:49 dying every 14 days at the hands of a current or former partner, we know there is more work
03:55 to do and that's why there's this absolute commitment and we've made it very, very clear
04:00 that we want to see an end to domestic violence against women and children in one generation.
04:06 Now the plan also highlights changes to improve police responses and the justice system to
04:12 support victim survivors and the Federal Government is really hoping that this plan will bring
04:18 Australia closer to achieving what they are hoping will be lasting change.
04:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]