Australia’s housing crisis is about NIMBYs not negative gearing

Behind their headline appeals to young home buyers, the Labor and Liberal housing plans recognise that NIMBY supply constraints are the biggest problem.

Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese are duelling to help first home buyers but their policies won’t fix the supply problem. David Rowe

Michael StutchburyEditor-at-large

Apr 17, 2025 – 5.00am

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Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton made a big thing of housing at their duelling election launches last weekend because the threatened great Australian dream is the intergenerational pain point of the inflationary cost-of-living squeeze.

The rival Labor and Liberal plans made headlines with their eye-opening demand-side fixes for first home buyers: Albanese’s 5 per cent deposit pledge backed by a government mortgage guarantee versus Dutton’s new tax break for mortgage interest payments.

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Michael StutchburyEditor-at-largeMichael Stutchbury is editor-at-large. He is in his fourth decade of writing for and editing national newspapers. After nearly six years as editor of The Australian, he returned to the Financial Review as editor-in-chief (2011-2024).