E&OE TRANSCRIPT
KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me live in the studio, I've got the Social Services Minister, Tanya Plibersek, on a few different issues federally. Can I start with your announcement today? How many crisis homes and accommodation are we talking about additionally for those who need it?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, this will house about 19,000 people in around 500 homes. And it's an announcement that the Housing Minister, Clare O'Neil, made today. It'll be grants to build new accommodation for young homeless people in particular. It's part of a really substantial $1.2 billion investment in housing and homelessness for women and children escaping domestic violence and other people who are highly vulnerable. I'm really proud of this work. Too often we've asked, when we've been talking about a woman, why didn't she leave a violent relationship? And what we should have been asking is, where would she go? And this begins to answer that question. We've got about 55,000 social and affordable dwellings under construction or planning across the country. This is a really historic investment because we know that after 10 years of neglect, we need to build these homes to keep people safe.
GILBERT: When you look at where the trends are, appalling trends on domestic violence and sexual assault. We need to obviously have a cultural awakening or discussion on that. But in the meantime, these measures have to be taken, don't they?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That's exactly the point. We need to do two things at once, right. We need to make sure that we're addressing people's immediate needs now. And I'm never going to say it's enough while we still have anybody in Australia that's experiencing family or domestic violence. But we've got $4.4 billion of investment as a Commonwealth Government in measures like prevention, early intervention, including making our leaving violence payment permanent. That's $5,000 if someone needs to leave a violent situation. We're building well over a billion dollars in new buildings so people have safe places to go. They're all really important measures. But we have to, Kieran. We have to change the underlying incidence of violence. We have to reduce the number of people who experience this in the first place.
GILBERT: On a few other matters. I saw you gave a very strong defence of the Prime Minister's mum, who's passed away more than 20 years ago. But are we, in relation to this discussion, do we have to tread carefully in relation to what people are allowed to not to say in a free debate in Australian politics.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Oh, come on. Like, I'm all for free speech, but attacking someone's dead mum, is that really what we've come to when it comes to free speech in this country? Like, he's the Prime Minister, he's fair game, he's a big boy, he can cop it. Attacking his mother. I knew Maryanne Albanese, she lived in my electorate, but I knew her much earlier than that. When I was in Young Labor, we would go to Maryanne’s house, and I saw then how crippled she was. Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful and difficult condition if you've got it today. 20, 30, 40 years ago there were fewer treatments. She lived her whole life, from her 30s onwards, she needed help with the most basic tasks. She was in and out of hospital the whole time. Anthony was her carer from a very young age. He was cooking the meals, he was cleaning the house, he was helping her do up her buttons, he was her carer. And to pretend for a second that she could have gone out and, you know, found a private rental and that she was clogging up public housing. I think that says a lot more about Pauline Hanson and what she thinks of people who live in public housing today than it says about Maryanne Albanese.
GILBERT: Some comments unearthed from a podcast last year. My colleague Cam and I reporting that earlier where Pauline Hanson spoke about indigenous culture, questioning why we're teaching it in the schools, and described it as the most primitive civilisation on earth. What's your reaction to those comments and in relation to the separate debate, but the political debate we're having right now on migration policy, do you accept that there is a lot of what she says in an economic sense to Australians that would resonate, even though some other things might not go down equally as well with voters?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think this proves that there's no group in society that Pauline Hanson isn't prepared to kick down on, for a start. And I think it's only someone who doesn't know anything about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, who could call it primitive. We're really lucky in this country to have 65,000 years of history and culture to learn from. You know, people are so proud, Egyptians are so proud of Ancient Egyptian things like the pyramids. Most Australians have never heard of the Brewarrina fish traps. I'm sure Pauline Hanson hasn't heard of the Brewarrina fish traps. Thousands of years old, evidence of early agricultural stewardship of fishing resources in Brewarrina there. I bet she doesn't know about that. If you don't take the time to learn about a culture, you've got no right to call it primitive. And just by the way, in modern Australia today, I've got a big Aboriginal community in my electorate. They're lawyers, they're doctors, they're nurses, they're police officers, they're business people getting on with their lives and contributing to our country.
GILBERT: On the migration specific issue that they've raised, do you accept that this will go down well with a lot of people that, you know, separate to a cultural question, to an economic question about putting roofs over people's heads and being able to get kids to get jobs?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, so it's not me saying this, but the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry are saying this will put a wrecking ball through the Australian economy. If Pauline Hanson thinks this is a good policy, where's the modelling on what it will do to the economy, what it will do to housing? Why isn't she around talking about it? Why isn't she on your show answering questions about her policy? They released their superannuation policy with no modelling on what it would do to retirement incomes. They've released an immigration policy with no modelling on what it will do to the economy. And just by the way, if you're talking about housing, a big proportion of the skilled migration numbers that we have, we've tripled the number of skilled visas of people who work in construction. We've already reduced immigration numbers by 45%. We're going to bring down those numbers further. But we believe in a sensible, orderly immigration policy, not just stuff that's made up on the fly with no modelling and no discussion.
GILBERT: Tanya Plibersek, appreciate your time.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Always a pleasure.