A push by the newly appointed NSW head of the country’s primary construction union to expand its membership into the multistorey residential sector will push up property prices and make it harder for new homebuyers to enter the housing market, a federal Liberal senator says.

Andrew Bragg, a NSW senator and shadow minister for housing and homelessness, said that any expansion of the CFMEU into the market would make it even more unaffordable to buy into what is already the country’s most expensive housing market.