Transcript - Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News

MELISSA MCINTOSH MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENERGY AFFORABILITY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WESTERN SYDNEY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR LINDSAY

Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Subject Albanese house purchase; mortgages; mortgage stress; cost of living; Reid.

Live on NewsDay with Kieran Gilbert (Sky News)

Video: Prime Minister has ‘questionable’ timing over $4.3 million coastal home purchase | Sky News Australia 

Kieran Gilbert

Let’s go live to the Shadow Energy Affordability Minister Melissa McIntosh. Melissa, what’s your read on the Prime Minister’s acquisition on the Central Coast of New South Wales? He’s getting married, as you know, next year. How do you think voters see this? Aspirational voters of Lindsay? Will they just say, fair enough.

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks very much, Kieran, for having me on. Well, it's the great Australian dream to buy your own home. But I think the timing of this is questionable by the prime minister. When you're a politician, you're under a lot of scrutiny. The decisions you make, the timing of those decisions, and certainly for a prime minister, as everyone has been saying personally, we wish the PM and Jodie all the very best. Copacabana is known as a retirement town on the Central Coast. Beautiful, overlooking the ocean. But the timing, when people are really doing it, tough. And as you know, I say it a lot, in Western Sydney, people are under mortgage stress. Right across the country, over 1.6 million Australians are at risk of mortgage stress. Peter Dutton and I met with small business owners yesterday and we sat down with them and they were telling us about how much of a struggle it is right now. It's so up and down for small businesses. You're a cafe owner, you're doing okay one day, the next you've got no customers coming through the door. It's because those customers are struggling with cost of living pressures. So, like you said, the aspirational people of Western Sydney, certainly in my community, the number one issue they're thinking about is not the Prime Minister's home, but securing a home and keeping the home they have.

Kieran Gilbert

I saw you with the Opposition Leader this week in the seat of Reid. It's more the Inner West with the new candidate there up against a pretty good local member in Sally Sitou. You'd have to have everything fall into place for the Liberals to win that seat. Or are you optimistic? What's your read on it? Excuse the pun.

Melissa McIntosh

Of course. Yeah. Thank you. Grange is who our candidate is. He's a really great candidate. He's already out on the ground. He's been in the Defence Force and he's committed to winning that seat for us in the election. But in Reid, just like right across the country, people are doing it tough. And as I said, we sat down with those small business owners and with the candidate, Grange, there and Peter Dutton and they told us about the stresses that they have. And we also talked about the homeowners of Reid, where mortgages are really high and rental properties are high as well and that they just can't get approvals. This big promise by the Albanese Labor Government to build over a million homes and we are just not seeing that. And places like Reid which are highly populated around Sydney are feeling those pressures. Of course we're optimistic so we can win.

Kieran Gilbert

Will the Coalition maintain that goal of 1.2 million new houses?

Melissa McIntosh

When the Coalition was in government, over four years, we had over a million homes come on and we had policies that meant that first home owners, first home buyers could build their homes. And I saw it out here in Western Sydney and we're committed to ensuring that people can get into a home. It is, as I said, in my opening statement, the great Australian dream to have your own home. And right now, the Labor government's policies mean that people are paying more for their rents, they're paying more for their mortgages, 12 interest rate rises and they're doing it tough more than ever before.

Kieran Gilbert

Joining us from Penrith, Shadow Energy Affordability Minister Melissa McIntosh.

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