Peter Dutton dodges questions about bank of mum and dad

Peter Dutton repeatedly dodged one key question after his 20-year-old son made a surprising admission about his finances during a press conference.

Peter Dutton has repeatedly dodged questions over whether he will allow his three kids to call on the bank of mum and dad to enter the housing market.

Mr Dutton was joined on the campaign trail today by his 20-year-old son Harry, a carpentry apprentice, who revealed he was saving hard to buy his first home.

“I am saving up for a house, and so is my sister Bec and a lot of my mates, but probably as you’ve heard it’s almost impossible to get in,” he said.

“We’re saving like mad, but it doesn’t look like we’ll get there in the near future.”

The Liberal leader was spruiking the Liberals’ plan to allow first home buyers tax deductibility in the first five years if they meet income eligibility requirements.

The tax break scheme will also be means-tested at $175,000 income for singles and $250,000 for couples.

Harry Dutton, son of Liberal leader Peter Dutton, speaks to the media on Monday. Picture: Richard Dobson / Newswire

Mr Dutton also highlighted the plight of his daughter Rebecca, a childcare worker, over the weekend in campaign material suggesting that she would struggle to buy a home on her income.

“You’ve brought your own son Harry out here, he spoke about how hard it is to save for a deposit. So in that case, you’re doing pretty well yourself. Why won’t you support him a bit and give him a bit of help with getting his house?” Mr Dutton was asked.

“I haven’t finished the excellent points I was making. The next point as to why people should vote Liberal is we can manage the economy well. Labor always trash it,’’ he said.

He then took another question without answering the question.

In recent years, the Liberal leader has been off-loading multimillion-dollar properties at a rapid clip as his proximity to the top job grows closer with a $12 million real estate sell-off since 2020.

Peter Dutton pictured with his family. Picture Facebook

According to his current disclosures to Parliament, Mr Dutton currently owns only a single property, a farm in Dayboro just north of Brisbane that he bought for $2.165 million in 2020.

But in recent years Mr Dutton sold an investment property on the Gold Coast for $6 million in 2022 after buying it in 2014 for $2.325 million.

That prompted questions at today’s press conference about whether he would offer to give his own family a helping hand to get into the housing market.

“I don’t want to accept a situation where only mums and dads who can afford to give their kids help, they’re the kids that can buy homes,’’ he said.

“Just not acceptable in your country. I really strongly, firmly believe in home ownership, I have spoken about it I think from the first press conference I gave as leader – spoke about it over my term in Parliament.

“Home ownership is so critically important. Young Australians are putting off having kids at the moment because they can’t afford rent under Labor and they can’t afford to save for a house under Labor.

“Older Australians who have done nothing more than just worked hard, saved hard for their own retirement thought they maybe give their kids a bit of a hand, $10,000 or $20,000 maybe when they’re buying a house, they’re now putting off their retirement so they can stay working for longer to try to get a bit of money to help their kids with a deposit or maybe the monthly repayments.

“Now, that’s what Mr Albanese has created – a huge mess. They have boomed migration which has crawled housing and we’re going to fix the problem and we’re going to help young Australians get back into housing.”

Mr Dutton’s family (from left) Harry, Tom, Rebecca and wife Kirilly Brumby. Picture: AP Photo/Mark Baker

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has his own property portfolio which now extends to the family home in Marrickville and his $4 million holiday home in Copacabana.

Mr Albanese has quietly rented out his $4 million Copacabana retirement home and is tipped to be able to ask for about $1000 a week for the luxury property.

The Prime Minister updated his official register of interests in January to list for the first time unspecified “rental income” for the clifftop NSW Central Coast property.

His real estate agent declined to reveal how much rent he is charging. However, online estimators suggested he could ask for $1000 a week or about $52,000 a year.

After growing up in public housing, Mr Albanese is now also renting out his Sydney home, a mortgage-free federation bungalow with a pool for $1350 a week while he lives rent-free at the Lodge.

That means that Mr Albanese’s rental income is around $2350 a week or $9400 a month. His annual rental income on top of his salary is an estimated $122,200 and his salary is $564,356 a year.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has previously taken aim at Mr Albanese for owning investment properties as he stepped up his campaign to scrap negative gearing laws.

“Let’s be real, if Labor wants to deal with housing affordability then it’s time to phase out the billions of dollars in tax concessions property investors get every year in the form of negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions,” Mr Chandler-Mather said.

It’s not known if Mr Albanese plans to give his own son Nathan Albanese a helping hand with the bank of mum and dad to get into the housing market himself.

Originally published as Peter Dutton dodges questions about bank of mum and dad