TOM STEINFORT, HOST: Joining me to discuss today's headlines, we have Minister for Aged Care, Sam Rae, and New South Wales Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane. Morning to you both. Sam, starting with you, Keir Starmer, he's been ditched and a lot of this is because of that surge in support we've seen for the right-wing Reform Party. It does kind of mirror what we're seeing with One Nation here in Australia. Has it got you worried in government?
SAM RAE, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SENIORS: Firstly Tom, Prime Minister Starmer has made an extraordinary public contribution as the leader of his country and over a long period in public office. And he's been a great friend of Australia. The relationship between Australia and the United Kingdom is obviously critically important, has a long history to it and its representation in the current AUKUS arrangements is critically important. So he's been very important in all of that.
But you raise a point, and it's a fair one. We've seen inflation pressures across communities all around the world, and those cost-of-living pressures come to bite and people have been looking for some easy answers, and we see that at home. We've got a new poll out today in New South Wales, of course, which I'll perhaps leave Kellie the expert to talk to about the New South Wales side of things better. But we have seen a rise in support for these populist right-wing parties around the world. You're right.
HOST: But has it got you worried about, you know, whether this is a sign of things to come for your Government?
RAE: What worries me is the issues facing families in my own community and across our country. And largely, Tom, that's about cost of living challenges. It's about making sure that we're finding solutions and we're delivering those solutions for people. It's not about driving division within our communities. It's about delivering solutions that actually help people with their household finances, with cost of challenges, looking after their families.
HOST: Kellie, for you, Keir Starmer, obviously they've had such a high rotation of Prime Ministers there in the UK and he was supposed to be the calming force. This does go to show how quickly it can all turn.
KELLIE SLOANE, NSW OPPOSITION LEADER: Let this be a warning to Anthony Albanese and Labor. Because you can come in on a landslide, as Keir Starmer did just two years ago, but if you lose the trust of the voters, if you don't provide practical cost-of-living relief and answer their concerns, then they'll boot you out. And I have no doubt that that's what they'll do to Anthony Albanese, who has also lost the voters' trust. But voters are more impatient than they have been before and they are more demanding, and so they should be, because they need to hold their elected representatives to a high level of accountability and people are doing it tough right now.
HOST: Closer to home for you though when we talk about One Nation, we've seen a new poll in the Daily Telegraph this morning and that's showing that One Nation is the second most popular in New South Wales at this point in time. I mean, don't worry about Anthony Albanese. Have you got bigger problems?
SLOANE: Alert, Tom, but not alarmed, because we have about nine months to go until the state election. Of course I'm listening, but when you look at the reasons for that concern of voters that is outlined in the poll, it's all cost of living. And today's Budget Day in New South Wales. This is a Labor government that sent our economy backwards in New South Wales. We've gone from top performing state in the country to the bottom in three short years under Labor. So I'll be out there prosecuting a message of strong economic management from the New South Wales coalition.
HOST: Alright, well, one thing's for sure at the moment. We've got this housing value debate that's unfolding, and that, of course, is only going to play into Pauline Hanson's hands. Sam, reports today say that in the wake of your government's tax reforms, property prices in Melbourne and Sydney, it looks like they're going to drop $100,000. Was that the desired outcome for you?
RAE: Well, we've always said through this pretty important debate to our country, Tom, that we needed to see a tempering, a slowing down of the growth in housing prices.
HOST: That's growth. How do you feel about prices coming down? Do you think that's a good result?
RAE: Well, housing's been growing at roughly 6 per cent a year for a number of decades now. What we'll see is some flattening of that growth trajectory. We'll still see housing grow over the longer term. I think we can all accept that it's a critical part of our economy. This is just about slowing that growth so that people who are trying to get into the housing market can have their savings catch up with the rate of growth across the housing market in Australia.
HOST: Alright, just quickly, today Virgin Australia is going to have its first pets-in-cabin flight from Adelaide. Sam, what do you think? I'm a bit iffy about this. Are you happy to sit next to a stranger's Chihuahua?
RAE: I'm happy to sit next to a Chihuahua. I feel like I can't really cast judgement here. I've got three small children, from time to time we shuffle them onto the plane, and I think there are a few Chihuahuas who are better behaved than my kids are sometimes, Tom.
HOST: That's exactly what I was going to say. If people see me walking down the aisle with a two-year-old and a four-year-old, they probably want to move. Kellie, what do you make of it all?
SLOANE: Yeah, Chihuahua, maybe not a Doberman, maybe if it fits in your handbag, but look, I've got a golden retriever. He is like a vacuum cleaner when it comes to hoovering up food, so he would be a disaster on a flight. I won't be taking my dog on the flight.
HOST: I think the public thanks you for that.