Television Interview, ABC News Breakfast

SUBJECTS: ADF recruitment; housing policies; proposed work from home legislation by the Victorian government.

JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: Now, advertising on TikTok and in online games has helped drive a jump in Australian military recruitment. The Minister for Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh joins us now from Parliament House with more. Minister, welcome back to News Breakfast.

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Good morning. Great to be with you.

GLENDAY: So, you've targeted the TikTok generation, you've been using influencers, but Defence hasn't actually hit its target again. Why is this such a hard issue to crack?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, actually, what we're really pleased to see is we have hit our target in terms of the number of people that we need to have in our Defence Force right now. In fact, we're about 300 people over that target. So, that's a great outcome in terms of not just growing our recruitment but also reducing that separation rate. We're retaining more people in our Defence Force for longer, which is a great outcome because when we came into Government, we saw that the numbers in our Defence Force were falling. We weren't recruiting anywhere near the number of people that we needed, and our separation rates were at record highs. So, we've been working hard over the last few years to turn that around and we've now got to a situation where the number of applications that are being made to join the Defence Force are at a 15 year high.

GLENDAY: Yeah, I think it's like 70,000 or so. But fewer than 10,000 of applicants are actually eventually hired though. Is defence just not attracting the right people? Is there something wrong with the recruitment process that so few people who actually apply end up in the Defence Force?

MINISTER KEOGH: So, certainly we've been doing a lot of work to improve that recruitment process to make sure that it happens quicker so that we don't have people dropping out of the system because they decide to go and do something else. And we've had success with that. And we've also broadened eligibility rules around certain tests. So, for example, people that had had a broken bone in their past sometimes were ruled out completely from being able to apply for a Defence role. People that had had acne, endometriosis ruled people out from joining our Defence Force entirely. We've changed those rules so people are looked at as an individual, matching it to the role that they're going to be going into in our Defence Force so we can bring more of those people through. But we're not going to be shy about the fact that we do set important standards for people to join our Defence Force. They have to be met. And that's also why we see not everyone who applies gets to come through.

GLENDAY: Just on another issue, the union movement says something finally needs to be done to rein in investment in housing by winding back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Does the Government have the courage to act on this?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, I think it's great that we're seeing a range of different suggestions coming forward from the union movement, as well as from industry and academics around what we need to be doing to improve productivity in this country. They're all going to be canvassed at the roundtable that's coming together shortly, and it's important that we look at all of those things. Housing is incredibly important. And we've seen, you know, the work that the Government was trying to do in the last term was thwarted by the Opposition in terms of getting through without housing packages to make sure that we can be building more homes here in Australia. And we're very much committed to that because that is the critical thing that we need to deliver when it comes to dealing with housing affordability. But other issues like planning laws, being able to bring on land and housing developments more quickly is another area that needs to be looked at. And we're doing work with the states on that as well.

GLENDAY: Yeah, the Government's been pretty clear about this issue of supply and reforming of planning. But even Treasury says you're not going to hit your housing target of 1.2 million new homes. So, don't you also then need to dampen demand and not just focus on supply? And one way of doing that, of course, is restricting access for investors, or at least making it less lucrative for them. Is this something that should be front of mind for the Government?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, certainly we've looked at, in terms of foreign investment into housing. We've made sure that that's been controlled. But we're also looking at what is the key issue, which actually is supply. We have a growing population here in Australia. We want to make sure that our kids are able to get access to housing. That means making sure that there's enough housing to go around. And we need to make sure we've got the people to build those houses as well. And we're very much focused on encouraging that. Things like our $10,000 incentive for apprentices to go into the construction industry, making sure that we've got free TAFE, all things that were opposed by the Opposition. But I think the result was pretty clear at the election that people want to see a Government that's going to take action around these issues, and that's what we've been doing.

GLENDAY: Okay. The Victorian Government, as we just heard, is going to try to enshrine the right to work from home two days a week. Is this idea from the Victorian Premier a good one?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, I think people very much understand what the Government there is trying to do because I know there was a big backlash when the Opposition tried to rip away the opportunity for people to work from home, as was canvassed at the last election. And certainly for those that are living in the outer suburbs where their commutes are just taking up so much of their time, being able to remove that cost, to remove that time sink so that they're able to concentrate on the work, make them much more effective in their jobs, but also have more time to spend with family. If that's something that works for that workplace and we know it's not suitable for every type of work, I can very much understand why we want to make sure that people can have appropriate access to that and I can see why the Victorian Government's doing it.

GLENDAY: So, they should have a legal right?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, that's something the Victorian Government is pursuing. Obviously, we, you know, as employers in the public service, work closely with the public sector union around what the opportunities are there. And we've been very clear through the APSC policy settings around the opportunities for public servants to work from home.

GLENDAY: The Victorian Government wants it to be the private sector as well, though. Should it be enshrined as a right for all workers to work from home two days a week?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, when we change those things, it can be complicated in making sure that we recognise that there are lots of different employment places, places of employment and types of employment. And one of the things we've very much settled on as a government is we've been very clear about what the rights are that sit in the system. And that's why we've been putting through laws to protect penalty rates through the award system, but which also ensures that there's that flexibility for the workers and their representatives to negotiate enterprise level agreements as well.

JAMES GLENDAY: Alright, Matt Keogh, we do appreciate you joining us this morning.

ENDS