Television Interview, Today Show

SUBJECTS: Defence Estate Audit; Defence Budget; Capital Gains Tax; Inflation; President Herzog Visit; Valentine’s Day

SARAH ABO, HOST: It does look good. You know who else loved it? The Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, who was watching that with keen interest. So let’s bring him in. Deputy PM, who’s the biggest Muppet in Canberra, huh?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Nice opening, Sarah, but I did grow up with The Muppet Show, so I did watch that very keenly.

KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: What about the Count — Jim Chalmers? He’s had a tough week.

MARLES: I’m really not going to answer that, Karl.

STEFANOVIC: All right. So, Deputy PM, let’s go straight to his portfolio — the Count. Capital gains first. So you want to tax us now to pay for all of your spending, huh?

MARLES: Well, we’ve made really clear, in respect of housing policy, that hasn’t changed. Our intentions around that haven’t changed, nor have the tax arrangements around that changed. You know, we acknowledge that housing prices are an issue and there is an intergenerational challenge here. But our strategy has been around the supply side — trying to build more houses — and that’s been our focus and continues to be our focus. So that’s where the policy of the government is at.

ABO: Haven’t you ruled out changes, though? You’re now saying there aren’t going to be any changes.

MARLES: Well, what we’re saying is our position in respect of housing policy is clear and that hasn’t changed, nor has our position in respect of the tax arrangements around housing. And we’ve got to have more houses in this country. That is a real challenge. We’re working on that. We’re doing that in the face of the opposition and Coalition, such as they exist now. And we need to be getting more houses in Australia to help deal with housing affordability.

STEFANOVIC: In your mind, is government spending a problem?

MARLES: Look, when we came to power, we inherited big deficits from the Coalition, which we turned into surpluses. We’ve been paying down Liberal debt. Fact of the matter is, Karl, if you look at spending under our government, it’s increased on average by about 1.7 per cent. Under the Coalition, during their nine years in government, it was 4.1 per cent. Being prudent in the way in which we are managing the budget is a record that we stand by and has been fundamental to our economic strategy.

ABO: But you need money, right? And that’s the reason behind you selling these $3 billion worth of Defence assets, which has obviously a lot of Defence personnel concerned. I mean, they’re worried about recruitment if you don’t have those inner-city bases.

MARLES: Well, I mean, all of that, can I say, Sarah, is a furphy. We want to see a presence of the Defence Force in the cities. We’ve got Defence Plaza Sydney right now, a state-of-the-art office building in downtown Sydney, which is 40 per cent full and 60 per cent vacant. We want more people in that building, as we want more people in Defence Plaza Melbourne. But what we’ve got to stop doing is spending and wasting money on properties that we don’t use. You can look at Spectacle Island, which is in Sydney Harbour. We’ve spent $4 million securing that site over the last four years. We haven’t had a member of the Defence Force on there since 2023. Now, rationalising the Defence estate has been an issue that’s been put in the too-hard basket for a very long period of time. That includes during the nine years of the Coalition. We’re actually doing something about it. If we don’t, what the Defence Estate Audit said was that we’re going to be spending something like $2 billion over the next 25 years without adding to capability at all. So this is a sensible measure which actually means that we are focusing our attention on increasing defence capability.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. There’s a story in The Australian today that says defence projects are running 33 years behind. That’s not a great stat.

MARLES: Well, when we came to office, Karl, we had 28 projects running a combined 97 years overtime. So, yeah, we inherited a real challenge here. The report from which you quote actually acknowledges that the government has made progress here. But this is a big challenge, and we’re doing it by being much more interventionist as a government in terms of these projects. When the Coalition were in government, they had four ministerial interventions over the course of their nine years. We’ve more than doubled that in just three and a half years. That is us managing these in a hands-on way, making sure that we are bringing these projects into check in terms of both budget and cost, and also delivery and timing.

ABO: Just quickly, while we’ve got you — Deputy PM — Labor MP Ed Husic says he’s feeling uncomfortable about the Israeli President Isaac Herzog visiting the country. There are a few others who echo that sentiment. What’s your response?

MARLES: Well, the President of Israel has been invited to Australia by both the Governor-General and the Prime Minister. He will be a welcome and honoured guest here. It is an important visit in terms of the bilateral relationship between Australia and Israel. But obviously, in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre — and that’s the context of this visit — the presence of the Israeli President in Australia is going to be particularly meaningful and significant to Australia’s Jewish community. And that is the focus of this visit. That is why the President will be here. It’s going to be an important visit, and he is a welcome and honoured guest.

STEFANOVIC: All right. Good to talk to you, as always. Have you got any plans for Valentine’s Day?

MARLES: Well, always plans for Valentine’s Day. Rachel, my Valentine — I am not about to reveal them on national TV. I know that she is watching now, and I want to make sure there is a surprise for her.

STEFANOVIC: Well, you keep watching, because I know you always do. Richard Marles, appreciate your time.

ENDS