NATALIE BARR, HOST: And the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, joins us live in Hobart now. Good morning to you. I noticed in The Nightly you said you will seek a third term in 2028 if you're re-elected. That's a big call. Are you measuring up the curtains, Prime Minister?
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Certainly not. We've got a big mountain to climb. I simply have confirmed that I intend to serve a full term if I have the great honour of being re-elected. But the last time a Prime Minister was re-elected having served a full term was way back in 2004. So, that puts in context how tough it is. And I know it's difficult, but we're working each and every day with our positive agenda for building Australia's future, strengthening Medicare, protecting Free TAFE, making sure that people have a home to live in. And the Coalition continue to run a very negative campaign.
 
BARR: Okay. Let's talk about housing, 100,000 homes for first home buyers to the tune of $10 billion. That's your promise. But your current plan is to build 1.2 million by 2029. Have you ever met that target, that monthly target of 20,000 homes?
 
PRIME MINISTER: What we're doing, of course, is it builds up. There was delay in our legislation, but we know, for example, our Housing Australia Future Fund has 28,000 homes that are either under construction or in planning. We've had more than 400,000 dwellings completed since we came to office, and building approvals were 26 per cent up in the latest monthly figures in February this year, compared with February last year. Housing Construction costs are up 1.6 per cent compared with the 17 per cent that it was when we came to office, so we’re very positive, we’re working -
 
BARR: Housing construction costs are up 26 per cent? That's terrible.
 
PRIME MINISTER: No. No, they're up 1 per cent.
 
BARR: Right.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Housing approvals are up 26 per cent. Housing costs are up 1 per cent. They were rising at 17 when we came to office, Nat. So, we're very confident, we're working with state and territory governments. I'll be visiting places in Victoria that have been built under our social housing accelerator later today. But we're positive that we can get there.
 
BARR: But you’re thousands behind. How do you know you can catch up, building houses?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, we can get there, we can get there, Nat –
 
BARR: How do you know? How can you convince people, like, you haven't so far, but how do we know you can?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, have a look at the figures –
 
BARR: I am.
 
PRIME MINISTER: 26,000 up on where they were last year in February, one month. That's an extraordinary increase in just one year. And that's because we've got a comprehensive plan of homes for Australia. Whether it is social housing, private rentals through our Build to Rent scheme, whether it's our Help to Buy scheme or this latest announcement will help as well. And what we've done is provide the incentive to state and territory governments to make sure those approvals happen, to make sure homes and units get built because there's a financial incentive for them to achieve their targets.
 
BARR: Okay, look, you're right. It is one of the biggest problems affecting this country. So, thank you very much for explaining your plan, Prime Minister.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Nat.

ENDS