E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS
FRIDAY, 22 May 2026
Topics: Federal Budget; Second Action Plan; Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence;
LAURA JAYES: In the meantime, I want to bring in the Social Services Minister, Tanya Plibersek said. Tanya, great to see you. I'm sorry if I interrupt you for this rocket.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: I want to see it too.
JAYES: Yeah, I thought you might. Let's talk about the budget because it has been a pretty hard sell over the last 10 days. This morning we see reports in the Nine newspapers that Anthony Albanese is open to changing what I think is an unintended consequences when it comes to trusts à la the death tax. Can you give us any information on that?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, so first of all, big reforms always need explaining. And so we're in the process now of making sure that people aren't listening to the misinformation and disinformation that is being peddled by our political opponents, that we're actually explaining the real impact of this. And in a lot of cases, the fears that people have are totally unfounded because in most cases, existing arrangements are grandfathered. That means they can keep doing what they've been doing. And when it comes to any potential changes, I mean, the Treasurer was very clear, even on budget night, that we would be consulting, particularly with startups, to avoid any unintended consequences.
JAYES: But this is trusts, if I could just stick on that for a moment, because you say misinformation, but if you are looking at changing those, which were unintended consequences, it's something that perhaps wasn't picked up in the budget process, but now you're going to have to change that.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, there's always two tasks after a budget. The first is to explain the actual impacts and not get sidetracked by the misinformation and disinformation. And the second thing is to make sure that the implementation reflects the intention of the changes that we're making and our top line change the thing that we are most concerned to do is make sure that young Australians have a chance of getting into a home of their own the same way that their parents and grandparents did. We know that our tax system was distorting that. We know that investors were skewing heavily to housing investment because of the generous tax treatment there and that was locking young house buyers out of the market. They were competing with cashed up investors who were getting tax benefits in a way that meant that young first home buyers were really struggling. So, the combination of our 5 per cent deposit policy, the changes that we're proposing to capital gains taxes and negative gearing, those are absolutely designed to make sure that young Australians today have the same opportunity to realise the great Australian dream of home ownership that their parents and grandparents did.
JAYES: So, there is still time to review the Trust and the CGT and there will be changes to those?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I'm going to leave any commentary on that to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, but I'd say every time there's a budget, the two big jobs are explaining it properly and making sure that the details of implementation really reflect the intention of the policies.
JAYES: Yeah. I just want to pick up on this idea of young people getting into a home. There's always the chance that, you know, I'm speaking to people that you aren't and we're all in our own little bubbles here, but there doesn't seem to be that hope from young people that the changes that we've seen in this budget are actually going to do what you say they do. There is certainly a lack of confidence in the market at the moment, coupled with higher interest rate cycle that we're seeing. So, when are we going to see this actually come to fruition? Because there's a real confidence problem at the moment.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah. And so we've seen already, I think around 300,000 young Australians get into the housing market because of our 5 per cent deposit policy. Like that on its own, very significant step forward. Coupled with the tax changes, coupled with our reforms to building codes, for example, coupled with the free TAFE, that means we're training more tradies so that we've got more builders. These things have to work together and we have to be working with the states and territories and with local government too. None of these are a silver bullet on their own, Laura. This is about a suite of policies that will rebalance our housing market to make it more affordable to get into and more suitable for the sort of family make ups that we've got today.
JAYES: Young people, it seems to me, have left that dream of home ownership behind a little bit. They're either looking at negatively gearing a property themselves because they want to live where they want to live and they can't afford to buy where they want to live. They'll look putting money into the share market, micro investing in their mates’ businesses. That I think they feel penalised for. You've got young children.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I do.
JAYES: I'm sure you get plenty of feedback.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I do. More than I ask for sometimes.
JAYES: I'm sure. Me too. So, is this what you say it is?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: One of the reasons that young people have felt so dispirited about the housing market is every time they go to an auction they're competing with half a dozen people.
JAYES: But I'm talking about building wealth more generally, and it's great that people want to get into their own home. But I feel like young people have already shifted in that, now they're looking at this budget going because how can we possibly build wealth?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Because we have made it hopeless for them, because we have, for too many years stacked the decks against them. I think most people-
JAYES: Do you really think this budget has given them hope?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, I do. And not just them, but their parents and grandparents as well. I do the, I've got the, you know, we are in our own bubbles that we talk to. But I also do street stalls every few weeks in my electorate. I'm there on a Saturday morning. Anyone wanders up, I get lots, lots of frank advice there as well. And for so long, so many of the older people, people my age I'm talking about and older, have said to me, I use this, I use negative gearing. I'm worried about my kids and grandkids never being able to afford a home to live in.
JAYES: People can still use negative gearing. That's the point.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, they can use it in a more limited way. So, yes, people can still use negative gearing. Everything's grandfathered if you've got a property now that's grandfathered. But from now on, if people want to use negative gearing, they have to go into a new property, which adds to housing supply.
JAYES: They're not afforded those changes that still their grandparents and their parents have got if they've got an existing home.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Isn't it a reasonable thing, though, to say if we're spending billions of dollars a year on tax subsidies, effectively, for the purchase of housing, that that adds to supply at the same time that we're not just supercharging competition in the existing housing market? I think that's a reasonable proposition. We're not stopping people from negatively gearing, they'll still get the benefits of capital gains tax at the same time we're asking them to add to housing supply.
JAYES: We're still waiting for this rocket launch. It has been paused still. But I want to talk about a really important issue that I think has kind of flown under the radar this week because of the budget and that is domestic violence. There's been a visceral reaction, I think, to Anthony Albanese, it was seen as dismissive. He was asked if on a radio program whether there should be a royal commission into domestic violence and violence against women. He said, no, we know everything that we need to know. This is not exact words, but I don't wish to verbal him, and royal commissions just make lawyers rich. Have you heard and felt the reaction to those words?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Certainly, people have raised it with me. And what I've said in response is when you talk to frontline workers who work in family, domestic and sexual violence services, most of them will say to you, we know what the problems are and we know what the solutions are. Please don't make us go through another long inquiry. Back action now. We've had eight major inquiries, including royal commissions in South Australia and Victoria in recent years. Over 1,000 recommendations from those substantial inquiries. So, royal commissions, coroners, inquests, like very serious work done to tell us what the situation is right now, what's working, what we need to do more of, what needs to change in our society. Governments need to lead, but we need whole of society change if we're really going to change family, domestic and sexual violence rates in this country.
So, actually, today we're launching our consultation for the Second Action Plan on our National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their Children. That is another opportunity for people to have their say about what they want to see more of. But more action, more specifics, more investment here, more work. We know what we need to do, we need to address. We need to keep consistent focus on prevention, early intervention, response like police and the court system, and recovery for people who've been victims. And we need to do more of what we know works. And we need to address the new and emerging threats like tech facilitated abuse, stalking apps on people's phones and computers, abuse using financial services, superannuation. Choking, Laura, I know I've spoken to you about this before. Young children are watching pornography online that tells them that choking is a normal part of sexual relationships. And girls are reporting to us, girls, teenage girls, saying in their first sexual encounter with someone, that person will choke them without consent in their first sexual encounter. I mean, we are dealing with new and emerging threats all the time. The biggest growth rate in sexual assault is perpetrator under 18, victim under 18. We are not, we're not effectively addressing the messages that young people are getting about what a healthy relationship looks like. So, we know where we need to focus our efforts. We need to get to specifics, implementation, sustained action. And I absolutely understand the calls for a royal commission because people are saying this is one of the biggest challenges we face as a nation. And it is, it genuinely is, in terms of the impact on people's lives, the lives lost. It is one of the biggest challenges we face. But we know so much of what we need to do. I really think we need to focus on action and that's what most people who work on the front line will tell you as well.
JAYES: Well, okay, so porn is a big problem. We've done so much with social media for young people. Why aren't we doing more on what you're talking about?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We've just introduced age verification for online pornography. It is bizarre that you need to be over 18 to go into a newsagent and buy a magazine, but the stuff that is for free, that is readily available on your mobile phone. We've had, you know, primary school kids sitting around at lunchtime sharing, you know, violent pornography on their mobile phones. Age verification is really important here. I'm not a wowzer, what adults do in their own time is their business. But we need to stop kids getting their sex education from violent and demeaning pornography online. We need to stop that.
JAYES: Just one more question, because we spoke, I think we spoke privately about the motherless story that CNN, this is a website and it had all the echoes of the Gisèle Pelicot case in France where there was a number, 50 men, I think, charged over her rape. Her husband facilitated that. He drugged her, she was asleep. There's people, thousands if not millions of people watching this kind of sleep rape. Is that a problem here?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I don't know of any similar cases here, Laura. But I think it tells us two things. It tells us that too many women are not even safe in the place they should be safest, which is their own home. And they're not safe from the people who should protect them and love them best, their husbands and partners. We need to deal with that. And also, who are those men who did that? You know, this is a whole of society change that we need to, that we need to - all of us, governments can lead, but every good man has the opportunity of influencing those boys, the next generation. And we know the best protective factor, the thing that makes it most likely that boys will never use violence in their relationships is a close and loving relationship with a father or father figure in their lives. Those good men are looking for opportunities to make a change. We've got to make sure we back them when they do.
JAYES: Yeah. And there's plenty of them.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Plenty of them.
JAYES: Yeah. Tanya, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thanks, Laura.
ENDS
