Interview - ABC News Breakfast
REBELLATO: First, I want to ask you about that breaking news. One of these so-called ISIS brides who'd been barred from the country will now be allowed in after being issued a permit. Why?
CLARE: Well, I've got great faith in ASIO and our security agencies that they're taking every step they need to take to keep Australians safe and that they'd be following the law in this case. This is not their first rodeo. And it's not just what, you know, colloquially called “ISIS brides.” In the past, under the former government, I think about 40 foreign fighters returned to Australia and they took the steps that you would expect and want them to take to monitor and keep Australians safe. And I'd expect that they'll do exactly the same here.
REBELLATO: Minister, you just mentioned ASIO. The head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, spoke last night saying Australia's foiled 31 major terrorism plots since 2014 and has suggested that Australia's terror threat levels may need an overhaul; that “probable” doesn't quite go far enough. Should the government be looking at that?
CLARE: Oh, we're always looking at that, and ASIO has never been better funded. But you know, we're a safe country, we're one of the safest countries in the world, but it doesn't mean there aren't dangers. And Mike Burgess pointed to that in his remarks last night. That attack on a synagogue that was finally funded and organised by Iran could have killed Australians. So, the threats are real, but the work that ASIO does is first-rate and we're all safer because of it.
REBELLATO: One of the other top stories we're looking at this morning is this new forecast from Domain. Now, it says that house prices could drop by up to 7 per cent in Sydney and up to 8 per cent in Melbourne over the next year. Do you think that's a good thing?
CLARE: Well, that's not the forecast from Treasury. Treasury says that house prices are expected to continue to grow in a sustainable way. And I think that's the key point, that they grow sustainably. Over the last 20 years or so, house prices have jumped by about 300 hundred or 400 per cent and wages have only grown by 80 per cent. And what that has meant is that for a lot of young people, they've given up on the chance or the hope to buy a home. I don't want us to be a country where young people feel like they've got no other choice but to rent for their entire life. That's why what we're doing is important. That's why today is a big day. Last year, in my portfolio, we cut student debt by 20 per cent. That took $16 billion dollars off the shoulders of a lot of young Australians. Today, the laws that will pass through this Parliament will make it just a little bit easier for a lot of young Australians to buy their first home, because when they go to buy it or when they turn up to an auction, they won't be competing with an investor who's got the taxpayer helping them out.
REBELLATO: But are you worried about people who own a home if they've got a mortgage? I mean, if prices fall the way they are predicted by Domain, up to $122,000 could be wiped off the average Sydney house. That could be pretty risky for people in terms of negative equity, couldn't it?
CLARE: And that's why I say that is not the prediction, that's not the forecast from Treasury. So, you know, I view that with, you know, a bit of a healthy dose of scepticism. The advice from Treasury is that house prices will continue to grow, but in a sustainable way. The challenge that we have as a country here is that prices have grown in an exponential way. It's why we say the system's broken at the moment. I think anybody who has kids or grandkids that are trying to break into the housing market knows just how difficult it is at the moment. They want the government to do something to fix this. You know, we're taking responsibility here to do something to help the next generation of Australians to get a fair crack at the housing system. We don't want a country where there's a lucky few that own homes, and then all the rest of the country rents. We've got a chance here to do something significant about it to help more young Australians buy their first home, and that's what the Parliament will do today.
REBELLATO: Minister, you're introducing legislation today on universities that you say will help more Australians into uni and to graduate. How?
CLARE: Well, about 50 per cent of young Australians in their 30s today have a university degree, but it's not the case everywhere. It's not the case in Western Sydney, where I grew up; it's about half that. It's the same in the regions, and it's even lower in the bush. And that's not because of a lack of talent. Talent's everywhere. It's opportunity that's not. And education can help to change that. There's lots of things we need to do to help more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and from the regions get a crack at university. One of it is the work we're doing to fix the funding of our public schools and tie that to reform, so more people finish school and then go on to TAFE or to university. But also, what we're doing here today, I'll introduce legislation that changes the way we fund universities, to provide more funding to universities that enrol students from disadvantaged backgrounds and from the regions and from the bush. And importantly, more funding to help them get through their uni degree. Because we know that young people from poor families and from the regions are about twice as likely to drop out of their degree in the first year. So, this does two things: helps them to get in, and then helps them to get through.
REBELLATO: Minister, before I let you go, one of the other stories of course we're talking about, being a breakfast TV show, is what's going on with Karl Stefanovic. You appear on our show, you appear on the commercial TV stations as well. Nine newspapers are reporting that he's set to leave Channel Nine. What do you make of all of this in this decision?
CLARE: Well, ultimately, that's a decision for Channel Nine. You know, my fight's not with journalists, it's with some of the politicians in this place that want to try and divide the country. But, you know, as Mike Burgess has said in the past, it's important that we turn the temperature down here and that we're not using our own voice to divide Australians or to make Australia, you know, a less safe place. So, we've all got to be very, very careful in the words that we use to make sure that we're bringing Australians together, not pulling them apart.
REBELLATO: Jason Clare, thanks for your time.
CLARE: Thank you.