Cyclones, housing & the climate cost | Q+A

Australians are holding their breath as Cyclone Alfred barrels towards south-east Queensland and northern NSW.

Q+A is on the road in Wyong on the Central Coast – a federal election battleground and a community that’s faced devastating natural disasters of its own.

Cost of living, housing, work and commuting, health and welfare service delivery are all on the agenda – and how more extreme weather may change where and how we live.

This episode was broadcasted on March 10, 2025.

Panellists: Minister for Health & Aged Care Mark Butler,Chair,Shadow Assistant Minister for NDIS & Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Hollie Hughes,Climate Change Authority chair & former NSW minister Matt Kean, Policy strategist & commentator Parnell Palme McGuinness and News Corp columnist & Sky News contributor Joe Hildebrand

Q+A is a television discussion program that focuses mostly on politics but ranges across all of the big issues that set Australians thinking, talking and debating.

It is driven by interaction: Q+A provides a rare opportunity for Australian citizens to directly question and hold to account politicians and key opinion leaders in a national public forum and Q+A is broadcast live so that not only the studio audience but also the wider audience can get involved.

We aim to create a discussion that is constructive, that reflects a diverse range of views and that provides a safe environment where people can respectfully discuss their differences.

It’s impossible to represent every view on a single panel or in one audience but we’re committed to giving participants a fair go.

In order to be as inclusive and diverse as possible, the program is presented from a range of locations around the country and all Australians are encouraged to get involved through social media as well as by joining the audience.

This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel.

[slando]

Housing costs are destroying the spirit of this country.

[dannoify]

This is interesting. Q&A have a loaded audience but even they felt sorry for this bloke & were dubious about more immigration. But the politician fobbed him off. They really don't give a shit about Aussies

[CogDiss]

Why on earth is Joe Hildebrand invited on to this show? He adds no value, and just takes up talking time

[ishizu]

Dont forget that forcing people back into the office will just exacerbate the cost of living crisis. Fuel, tolls, incidental coffees and lunches all add up. And that's not even considering the lost braincells and time in travel which could be better spent on mental wellbeing activities like a walk or other exercises.
Workplaces better well make sure they are offsetting these things.

[darthpio]

An entire conversation about the housing crisis and not one mention of investors.

[kathleenbennett]

Did any body elses heart drop when they all agreed that the prices of anything is not going to go down??!! That this is just what we have to adjust too...

[wwav]

Tell me why I should raise my kid to participate in a system that doesn’t work. The future generations are learning from their parents and we quite frankly have had enough of your bs. Income tax, gst, rates, utilities, petrol tax, super even making us invest in the companies screwing us so we don’t even want them to stop. Negative gearing taking money from lower incomes to pay for investorsThey’re not going to work for nothing. They don’t even have footy teams in regional towns anymore no community. You’re destroying the working class. Politicians are all filthy liars not one is a decent human being absolute leeches of society and our current biggest threat our own spineless government

[Commander.Starfleet]

I don't want to crash the economy, but I don't believe we have to just accept that prices won't come back down. That's defeatist. Controlled and targetted deflation can bring prices back to where people want them and target only the goods & services and related. For example, a progressive vacancy tax where every month the property is not rented by an actual human for at least one month, would give an extra 1% of property tax that could be used by the local govt to build more homes. By doing this, home prices could drop to $250, 000. Further, tax incentives for businesses to open branch offices and stores in smaller towns could decrease pressure on pepople moving to the cities for better jobs, thus dcreasing home and office prices all around.

[belindajames]

Our action on climate change is irrelevant if China, US, Europe, India are not acting on climate change. It doesn't matter what we do if theyre not doing enough...

Adaptation and mitigation is what we should be focussing on, not net zero

[hamesparde]

It's actually not "more complex than that"! Oh it's more complex than just the massive artificial demand we've created, but... We need more supply!

[Banon]

Joe’s opening comments are crazy. Does he want to run an insurance company and insurance houses in high risk areas??? Who pays for it, the other policy holders. Genuinely insane remarks.

[TheMightyAbs]

There should be NO buybacks. People bought homes that were flood affected they would have paid lower prices because of that. If people can't afford to rebuild their homes then they should go rent somewhere they can afford. It's not on taxpayers who don't participate in the upside when people build their million dollar houses on the coast to be continually asked to bail out individuals.

Buying any property is a risk and there is upside and downside and people should take personal responsibility to make sure they pay for adequate insurance or move somewhere else if they can't afford it. You can still get a 2 bedroom apartment in Liverpool for $400k so don't cry me a river saying people can't afford it. The government doesn't have any money. the money is all tax money coming from hard working taxpayers that lose 30-50% of their income in tax on the work they do.

[MRDJBURNS]

Why is Butler on a show about housing? He's put a lot of people on the streets with shutting down legal vape stores and the black market is now getting $5 BILLION from his personal crusade against vaping.

[ralphtoivonen]

Onya Libs you have been in power the majority of the time and the causes of the plunder of wealth given to the already rich is of your doing.

[hamesparde]

The governments "budget management" is print a bunch of money and then import over a million people in two years to try to mitigate the fact that they printed a lot of money and then have the prime minister go on TV and talk about a "supply" problem (regarding the cost of housing).
It's actually absurd!

[hamesparde]

It's not complex! Big companies (that want cheap workers) and people who own lots of real estate want it. No one else does and you know what? The average person would probably prefer to be a little "poorer" if they could actually afford their own home.

[dorsia]

No one is talking about taxation, the main cause of the cost of living crisis is proposed to be inequality. No one is addressing the issue, this is all just a song and dance.

[hamesparde]

Building a new house is more expensive than renovating an old one!

[Peekaboo-Kitty]

*How come China doesn't have to take action on Climate Change?*

[hamesparde]

It's expensive when you build a different plant design every time like the US. If we just build the same plant and learn how to do it more efficiently every time it'll be a lot cheaper than people make out. Also certain other forms of energy are a lot more expensive than people say they are.