Steve Price: Australia Correspondent on the federal budget, the tax break for workers, capital gains tax

Migration and housing supply are emerging as key issues, following the Australian Government's latest Budget. 

The Labor Government is raising taxes on investment properties and some trust funds to pay for a $250 tax break for working Australians. 

Its expected 35 thousand fewer homes will be built, despite net migration remained at 300 thousand people per year. 

Australia Correspondent Steve Price told Mike Hosking a federal surplus isn't expected until 2036 and gross debt will likely hit $1 trillion this year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with ends and eye insurance, peace of mind
for New Zealand business se right for.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Us, Very good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
That out of ten.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Two, I mean I sat and watched it. It's the
most cynical political act of barsardary I reckon I've seen
ever in budgets. And you know the cute thing about
this is there's no election till twenty twenty eight. But
the worst thing is there's no opposition, so alb and
easy and charmers, the Treasurer can basically do whatever they
want to do, which is what they did last night.

(00:35):
Just quick, some numbers the next surplus. We won't have one,
as the budget tips until twenty thirty four thirty five,
which is a fair way down the track. Inflation this
year twenty five twenty six hits five percent, some say
seven percent. Our dead in twenty five twenty six nine
hundred and eighty two billion, and when you go forward

(00:55):
to twenty six twenty seven it goes over the trillion dollar.
Man Migration still three hundred thousand people a year and
negative gear and kicks in in July twenty seventeen only
on new bills. That means no one's going to build anything.
And it is quite remarkable what they tried to do
last night. And what is the positive? What do you
wake up and go, well, this is great. I'm going

(01:17):
to get that from the government. Two hundred and fifty
dollars a year tax benefit for everybody. But it's better
than that. It kicks in in twenty seven, twenty eight,
and the next election is in March twenty twenty eight.
That's a grand total of four dollars eighty one a week.
That's not a coffee, will it? So?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I don't know, what do you need a month's worth
and you get a poll. Will it play well for
them at all or not?

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, this is the point I'm making. It won't play
well for the opposition because the opposition are nowhere. I mean,
they're just non nonexistent. Will it play well for one nation, Yes,
because one nation will come out and so well, you
still bring three hundred thousand people a year into the
You're not putting enough money into all building new houses.
You've ACKed on negative gearing on everything which is a

(02:07):
new build. So where do you think the new houses
are going to come from? Because no one's going to
invest in them. I mean that's where Hanson and One
Nation will go with this, and that's where it will
play in pretty well for the Victorian election in November. Interestingly,
Victoria did the best out of any state when it
comes to the GST.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Do you have an election by perchance?

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yes? And three point eight billion in three point eight
billion from canber into that hole in the ground up
the road for me, which is a train line going
from somebody no one wants to be to someone and
no one wants to go. Incredible.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I'm getting confused now because this one Nation success out
of Pharah and this alleged coalition is the difference between
the coalition between One Nation and the Lobbs versus the
coalition between One Nation and the Nationals. Because I'm watching
some guy yesterd Ago go never never, never, never, never
in a million years. So who's doing business with who?
If there's any business being done at all.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, it seems that Andrew Hasty, who's the most likely
next leader of the Liberal Party, doesn't want to be
involved in a coalition either. So the only people within
the coalition who are talking about joining One Nation, and
they're whispering it behind everyone's back because they don't want
to be seen to be the first people to say
it are the right of the right side of the
Liberal Party, not the moderates, and so you know, it

(03:25):
may or might not happen. But when it comes down
to the crunch, you're going to have a federal election.
As I said in March twenty twenty eight, if the
One Nation Party is still as strong as it is
today and it ends up with two three four seats
in the lower House, then we go back to a
Julia Gillard situation where she had hung Parliament. You've got
to rely on independence to get you supply, and that's

(03:48):
the only way the Liberal Party could govern is by
dealing Paulin into giving her a seat in the cabinet
and dealing them in. That's the only option.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
What's your assessment of their talent? You know, Barnaby Joyce
has been around a long time, Pauline's been around a
long time. But I mean, did they have any sort
of real depth that once you got down to I
don't know six seven, eight ninety ten, that there are
some there's some brain power there that could actually be
at a top table and do something productive or not.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Well, do you want to go through the top ten
of the Labor Party in Liberal study as well, and
then there's going to be a very quick exercise. Seriously,
I'm in the bloke Farley in Sarah seems pretty good.
He's run an agricultural business in that area. So you're right.
I mean, you look, I met the One Nation candidate
in this seat down here, and I was very underwhelmed
the twenty year old who was running and had much

(04:34):
more talent in the bloke they put up as a candidate.
But you're right. It's like, you know, if you keep
adding teams to the NRL, you're going to eventually run
out of talent. And that's what happens in Australia with politicians.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Exactly. Interesting. I was also watching yesterday, so you had
a couple of people trying to blow up some ATMs
this morning at Queen Vic Markets. What was the money yesterday?
Is watching the Victorian government. We're handing out millions for
people who been firebombed and so what are your book
cameras and alarms and stuff in.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, that's that's what they're attempting to do, rather than
get police back on the streets. This story has just
broken in the last twenty minutes and it happened at
four o'clock this morning. There is two ATMs. Many people
listening to me in New Zealand this morning will have
been to Queenvick Market. It's undergoing a renovation at the moment.
The whole joint's now sealed off to ATMs. We don't

(05:25):
know yet what explosives were used, but there was explosives
because they tried to blow them apart so they could
get money. How desperate's that. But it's just another in
the long line of overnight fire bombings and attacks by
criminal gangs and the government. He has lost control of
the streets. It's basically a lawless state and that's what
it's like.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
People think about it. It's just literally watching it yesterday
and they were talking about and they were showing footage
of all the shops that have been blown up, and
you've talked about it on the program before and their
antswer was more alarms and more camps. Does anybody like,
I mean, you're literally you look like a terror zone.
This was one of the most inhisticated art led cities
in Australia, if not Australasia. And now are you just
waking up the stuff that blows up overnight from thugs.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
You feel like you're in Beirut in Lebanon, to be honest,
I mean, it just is completely out of control and
no one seems to know what to do about it.
You know, they're paying on mobile phones on secure apps,
kids five hundred bucks to go and get a jerry,
cancel it up with petrol, throw it into a nightclub
and set fire to it. That's what's happening. And I

(06:29):
don't think the police or the government have any idea
what to do. I mean, one nightclub owner over the weekend,
so we needed to bring in the army. I mean,
I thought that was a bit of an overreaction, but
I'm starting maybe maybe that's what we need to do.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Good on you, catch up next week. Appreciate it. Steve
Price out of Australia.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
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Speaker 2 (06:47):
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