Unearthed clip shows Scott Morrison backing shared equity scheme during GFC

Scott Morrison has rubbished Labor’s new plan to help people buy homes - but an unearthed clip has come back to bite him.

Scott Morrison has moved to prepare the nation for the first interest rate hike since 2010 as an embarrassing video emerged of him spruiking a shared equity scheme.

The Prime Minister has rubbished Labor’s plan to allow low income earners to buy a home with the government taking a share of up to 40 per cent of new homes and 30 per cent of existing homes to allow families to enter the market.

But in an unearthed video clip during the global financial crisis, Mr Morrison backed the idea - for banks - during an interview on Sky News.

“Shared equity mortgages are a really good opportunity,’’ he said.

In response to those revelations tonight, the Prime Minister said he was never referring to schemes where the government owned a share of your home.

“I had no plan for the government to own people’s homes,’’ he said.

“Shared equity schemes have been around for a long time and some people choose to do them in the private sector. During the global financial crisis there was a squeeze and there was a focus on Bendigo Bank because of the lack of liquidity in the debt market … So, that was a very different set of issues.”

Turns out ⁦@ScottMorrisonMP⁩ didn’t always hate shared equity schemes 🥰⁦@newscomauHQ⁩ pic.twitter.com/qep3CMChZ9

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) May 2, 2022

As he prepares however for the RBA to hike interest rates, Mr Morrison told voters that the rate hike is “not about me.”

“Tomorrow, it is not about me. It is not about Mr Albanese,’’ he said.

“It is about Australians themselves and the decisions they are making and understanding the pressures on the economy and who they think is going to be better able to manage those pressures into the future.”

He then accused journalists of looking at “things through a totally political lens.”

“I don’t. And Australians don’t. Australians are focused on what they are paying for and who they think is going to be best able to manage an economy and manage the finances, so they are in the best possible position to realise their aspirations. Australians know that there are pressures on interest rates.”

Scott Morrison has slammed Labor’s home ownership pitch to voters, but an unearthed clip shows he backed a similar idea - for banks - during the GFC. Picure: Sky News

The Prime Minister also pointed out that many homeowners will remain unaffected by the changes because they have fixed their mortgage.

“We have got people that have moved from 20% fixed rates to 40% fixed rates, and you know what that tells me? Australians know what is going on,’’ he said.

“It is hard to own your first home, but last year, 164,000 Australians did. They bought their first home.

“In Labor’s last year, there were 91,300 Australians who bought their first home, and under our government, under the home guarantee scheme, under the HomeBuilder scheme, under the First Home Super Saver Scheme, two of those schemes Labor opposed.”

Originally published as Unearthed clip shows Scott Morrison backing shared equity scheme during GFC