if that's their choice) TIM COSTELLO: Sure, there are many homeless people who choose to be homeless or drink or gamble, but there's many mentally ill who want to be in a bed, and I've sat for hours trying to get people who need a bed at night - a bed - and can't get them one. There... a target of reducing by half the 100,000 homeless on our streets - 12,000 of whom are kids - I think is a really good target. It was bipartisan with Malcolm Turnbull and for Tony to reject that target, I actually think is sad. TONY ABBOTT: Well, I'd like to see homelessness reduced to zero if possible, but I think it's very unlikely that in this veil of tears that's ever likely to be achieved. LIZ JACKSON: But the question is, Malcolm Turnbull undertook a bipartisan approach on the issue of halving homelessness by 2020. Will you continue that commitment because in the light of your remarks a couple of weeks ago, welfare agencies are concerned about that? TONY ABBOTT: Well, I support governments doing whatever they reasonably can to bring homelessness down, and I am... I have... I see no reason to oppose the actual measures that the government has put in place in this area. LIZ JACKSON: And you'll continue the bipartisan commitment to halve it by 2020? TONY ABBOTT: I think it's important to try to bring homelessness down. LIZ JACKSON: Why are you backing off saying that you're...