TRANSCRIPT - ABC Sydney Drive The Monday Political Forum with Richard Glover

PAUL FLETCHER MP

Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts

Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy

Manager of Opposition Business in the House

TRANSCRIPT

ABC Sydney Drive

29 JULY 2024

Richard Glover: So in Parramatta now, unlike Ultimo, people can see you through the window, right? So I don't want any sort of scratching of the hair or anything like that. You've got to, you know, make it look good. Happily, away from these windows is Paul Fletcher, not cause he's not very good looking, but Paul Fletcher, federal Liberal MP for Bradfield, who's on the line for us. Hi, Paul.

Paul Fletcher: Hi, Richard, and I'm thrilled that you're in Parramatta. When I was Communications Minister, I really pushed for the ABC to open a facility in Parramatta and I'm really delighted that's happened.

Richard Glover: Okay. But I was telling people the story of Ian Cameron, my great - he was a member of the Liberal Party so you might like him, but he was one of the great hosts of ABC radio. He hosted the breakfast show in Perth and their studios are above the main road into Perth and he used to every morning on the breakfast show, do this terrible commentary on what people were doing in their cars and he could see them through the window. So be warned, if you walk past our studios in Parramatta and you're doing something untoward, I will call it as Ian did like a sport!

Paul Fletcher: Important safety warning.

Richard Glover: Exactly. Now, in America, both sides are establishing their talking points, I guess, for the November presidential election. On the Democrat side, it's Kamala Harris, she’s a left winger from San Francisco they say, here's JD Vance:

“The people are going to learn her record, they're going to learn that she's a radical, they're going to learn that she's basically a San Francisco liberal who wants to take San Francisco policies to the entire country and I don't think it's going to sell in Minnesota, I don't think it's going to sell anywhere else.”

There's Trump's vice presidential candidate, candidate JD Vance, on the Democrat side, I think it's the last couple of days, it seems to be the idea that Trump and Vance are just weird with some quoting Vance's prior attacks on Harris as an example of childless cat ladies with no direct stake in America.

Paul Fletcher. A week is a long time in politics, and there is a whole new campaign on in the United States. How are you calling it so far?

Paul Fletcher: You're right. There's been an amazing change over the last couple of weeks with the attempted assassination, former President Trump, and then, of course, the decision of President Biden not to run again. The first time that's happened, I think, since Johnson, ahead of the 1968 election, decided not to run.

His vice president, Hubert Humphrey, who was a Minnesota politician, ran and did very poorly then. That's not necessarily a portent, but it just shows that not everything is new in politics. Look, I think the interesting thing about JD Vance is his book Hillbilly Elegy, which is a fascinating read if anybody hasn't read it, he really talks about the experience of growing up poor in, rural Kentucky or Ohio, I think it was, and his personal experience joining the US Marines, and that turned his life around. 

He went to Yale, and you know, ended up becoming quite successful. That narrative, I think, has a lot o f appeal in the US. And the question will be whether that element of his narrative can add to the Trump proposition. As you say, we're seeing sharper, clearer lines, I think, from both sides against each other, because I think there's clearly a sense that a campaign where it wasn't entirely clear what the issues were has now started to sharpen up quite a lot.

Richard Glover: Yeah, but childless cat ladies, it's not great, is it? If you want to attract, you know, a large proportion of the population who might not have had the opportunity to have children or the desire to have children.

Paul Fletcher; Well, as we know, one of the difficulties in analysing US politics from Australia is that their system is fundamentally different than ours because voting is voluntary. So it's all about getting your base out. Our system, because we've got compulsory voting, is very much focused on appealing to the middle ground and those who may not have a particular affiliation with either party.

So things that, to us politically, can look very odd, have a certain logic to them in the US. I'm not necessarily arguing their system is better. I happen to think our system is better, but that's the system they've got.

Richard Glover: Under current laws, landlords in New South Wales are able to terminate rolling leases at any time without reason but that will change from next year. With the government promising a ban on no fault evictions, homeowners will be required to meet one of several thresholds for eviction, such as the sale of the property or damage caused by the tenant.

The Premier says it's part of creating circumstances which will make it possible for Sydney to have a proper mix of people. Here he is:

“It's a bit of certainty and fairness, particularly for young people, in what is the second most expensive city in the world, which is Sydney, and at the moment we're losing twice as many young people as we're gaining. It's a massive drag on the New South Wales economy because our best and brightest are up and leading.”

There you go. There's the premier a little earlier today. Meanwhile, landlords say the policy will backfire. It'll just reduce the number of properties available for rent, they say, who's right Paul Fletcher?

Paul Fletcher: Well, I think it is, important to recognise that one of the things you want to do is maximise the supply of housing. That's a problem when it comes to housing for purchase and also housing for rental, and we want to have a strong supply of both rental housing and housing, that people uh, want to buy and own. So you know, there is a serious issue about whether the regulatory controls disincentivise people from buying property to then rent out and put into the rental market. That is a significant issue.

That being said, I make the point that my New South Wales Liberal colleagues took a policy to the last election, under Dom Perrottet's leadership to move to a reasonable grounds model for eviction during periodic leases. So very similar in fact to what the Premier's now announced.

So, you know, I think one of the questions will be whether the balance can be struck so that you don't end up having that negative impact on housing supply or particular supply of homes for rent, and whether this can be done in a way that doesn't compromise that. Because if you do end up compromising that then you've done more damage, I think, than benefit to renters.

Richard Glover: I mean the landlords say you own it, you should be able to do what you like with it, like you can with any other piece of property.

Paul Fletcher: And it's fair to say that there are already, as there should be, some restrictions on how owners of rental property are able to deal with it. Really again, the key point is,  what can you do to maximise the supply of rental housing?

And if you end up significantly disincentivising investors, including mum and dad, investors from buying properties to then put into the rental market, that could do significant damage to the supply of rental housing. So like a lot of these things, there's no straightforward, simple answer, and I think that is something that we do need to watch out for very carefully.

Richard Glover: Now the Shadow Finance minister, Jane Hume says the one little bit of good news from the government's reshuffle is that the Minister for the Republic role has gone by the wayside. Paul Fletcher, is this a sign that's all over for the republic?

Paul Fletcher: Well, I must say, in the federal parliament we have wondered what Matt Thistlethwaite's been doing over the last couple of years, in particular the last twelve months or so. He's a good fellow, but he hasn't looked all that stressed or rushed or busy because it's been pretty clear that it's been tools down on the republic despite him having been Assistant Minister for the Republic for the last two years.

Look, pretty clearly what happened was that the Voice outcome violated, or the process I should say, that was followed to get to it, violated every piece of conventional wisdom in Australian politics. Which is that to get a referendum through is hard and more often than not, they fail.

Almost always they fail if you don't have bipartisan support and the kind of cavalier way in which all of those well accepted principles were just tossed over the side by, the Prime Minister produced a result which at least I suppose, in retrospect, looks almost entirely inevitable.

Richard Glover: He had promised during the election and when he made the promise, he didn't know that Mister Dutton would form the view he did.

Paul Fletcher: Yeah, I think you can say pretty clearly that most of the cardinal rules about how to manage these things were not followed. In any event, I think the lesson that the Prime Minister's obviously taken away is that referendums are pretty hard things to get through and he's not going to be chewing up a lot of, uh, energy or effort on another one anytime soon.

I mean, I have to say I'm a Liberal who supports a republic. That's been my position for a long, long time and so to that extent, you know, I think it's a little bit unfortunate that the mishandling of the Voice would appear to have had one of the consequences, that it's pushed off for quite some time when we might as a nation re engage in it but it's pretty clear the exercise of political management that Mister Albanese has chosen to engage in here.

Richard Glover: Australia's charged out of the blocks at the Olympics. What's been your favourite moment so far? And what did you think of the opening ceremony, which some people loved and some people loathed. I didn't quite understand what the fuss is about. I thought it was quite good, but there you go. 

Paul Fletcher: Oh, look, I think it was clearly the Matildas, particularly on the back of a loss, and then it was looking like they were out, you know, very big, very big numbers of goals. Those are numbers bigger than you normally see in football school lines. But they held on and they came back in the 90th minute.

You know, it was just great last year with the Women's World cup, seeing the unbelievable amount of community support for the Matildas. I remember going to some local live sites in my electorate, chilly nights, but lots of people out there watching and I think that support, you know, incredibly strong. Look, the opening ceremony, I thought it was very French, very French. 

Richard Glover: What does that mean Paul? (*laughter*) Define French! We are out of time, but thank you very much to Paul Fletcher, the federal Liberal MP for Bradfield. Paul, thanks so much.

Paul Fletcher: Thanks very much.