Election 2025: Labor and Coalition housing spokespeople square off in election debate

The two people vying to be the next housing minister have different views on how to solve the housing crisis, as new data shows new homes are lagging behind expectations.

Labor has failed to deliver a “a single new home” with its housing policies, the opposition says, as new figures show the Albanese government’s five-year Housing Accord target is falling well behind target.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday released housing completions data for December, showing just 45, 167 dwellings had been completed,

That takes to 90,136 of homes completed in the first six months of the Housing Accord since July 1, 2024, significantly fewer than the average of 240,000 a year over five years.

New data shows the Albanese government’s housing target is falling behind schedule, as the opposing housing spokespeople debated their policies. Picture: Mark Stewart / NewsWire

Only 168,049 dwellings had begun construction in the 12 months to December 2024, 30 per cent below under what is needed each year of the National Housing Accord, the Urban Taskforce Australia said.

“There is now an enormous task to make up for this shortfall and lift the number of completions each year,” chief executive Tom Forrest said.

“If we are to get anywhere near the Housing Accord targets, it will take the combined effort of state and federal governments to clear away the impediments obstructing housing supply,”

The ABS data coincided with an often heated debate at the National Press Club between Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and opposition spokesman Michael Sukkar.

Both Labor and the Coalition have made housing centrepieces of their bids to win the May 3 federal election, announcing big spending policies at their campaign launches on Sunday.

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have campaigned heavily at new housing estates, spruiking those policies.

Labor and the Coalition are offering quite different housing policies this election. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also been pushing the Coalition’s centrepiece housing policies this week on the campaign trail. Picture: Richard Dobson / Newswire

Ms O’Neil told the National Press Club debate Labor was trying to fix a problem “40 years in the making”.

“This is a 40-year-old problem for our country. Just look at the data. It’s very clear,” she said.

“For 40 years, we have not been building enough homes.”

She said the Coalition policies offer “absolutely nothing” for young people, she said.

“All they have is a cocktail of policies that are going to lead to higher house prices and fewer homes”, Ms O’Neil said.

Mr Sukkar suggested a generational policy failure had been made in three years under the Labor Albanese government – post-Covid.

“Rents have jumped a massive 18 per cent under Labor, with a family with a typical mortgage $50,000 worse off in higher interest repayments,” he said.

“Despite promising so-called billions in housing investment, Labor’s yet to deliver a single new home through a policy implemented this term.”

The Coalition’s major housing policies include withdrawing from super to put down a deposit, and negatively gearing mortgage interest repayments.

These demand-side schemes are balanced by the major housing supply policy proposal, including 5bn for councils to build water, sewerage and access roads so new suburbs can be built.

Underpinning this cost-of-living election is Australia’s housing crisis. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Ms O’Neil said couples in their 30s, both working, cannot get a house like their parents and grandparents.

“We came to office three years ago after a decade of abject neglect of housing,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison actually deliberately made a decision to take the Commonwealth out of the discussion.”

The Labor government had lifted rent assistance by 45 per cent, and so far 28,000 social and affordable homes are under construction or planning, Ms O’Neil spruiked.

“Our government is going to work with the states and territories to do something that no Commonwealth government has done before – and that is build 100,000 homes specifically for first-home buyers,” she said.

“We want to make sure young people around the country get a clean shot at getting into home ownership without having to compete with property investors or other generations.”

Questioned about why the Coalition had no housing target number, Mr Sukkar said Labor had failed to meet its targets.

Michael Sukkar says a generational housing crisis has developed over the course of three years. Picture: Richard Dobson / NewsWire

“We will build more homes than the Labor Party,” he said, and did not answer the question.

“We’ll get to as many as we possibly can, but I’m certain it will be higher than Labor.

What I’m not willing to do is insult the intelligence of Australians and put in place a target that I won’t be responsible for and Clare won’t be responsible for in 10 years’ time.”

Ms O’Neil said Ms Sukkar’s aversion to a housing target was “more of the evasion and unwillingness to take any responsibility for this problem that led to nine years of total neglect of this by the Coalition”.

The Coalition says Australia’s high immigration intake since the pandemic is a key cause of the housing crisis.

A Coalition government would reduce overall migration but “reorient the skills list” to get more tradies in, Mr Sukkar said.

A Labor government would prioritise training Australians rather than granting visas to construction workers, Ms O’Neil said, adding about 10,000 construction workers came in last year.

Labor’s 5 per cent deposit scheme has been criticised as inflationary. Ms O’Neil said Treasury advice showed the house price lift would not be significant.

This demand-side deposit measure was balanced by a commitment to build 100,000 new houses exclusively for first homebuyers, at a cost of $10bn. But those numbers simply did not add, Mr Sukkar said.

Australia’s housing crisis has been brewing for 40 years, Housing Minister Clare O'Neil says. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

“A very modest home in this country costs $500,000 … there’s no way in the world they’re going to build homes for $100,000,” he said.

But the scheme would be to “bridge the gap” on projects which “can’t stack up”, the Housing Minister replied.

“They can’t get their heads around the fact that our government is not proposing to pay

the entire building cost. We’re talking about making projects that can’t stack up, stack up,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Because this is exactly the kind of intervention that we need when we have a housing crisis this bad,” the Labor MP said.

Ms O’Neil blasted the Coalition’s super-for-housing scheme as a terrible idea, which would drive up house prices, “trashing their retirement savings” and “gifting it to the older property-owning generation”.

Super-for-housing schemes “significantly” disadvantaged women, Ms O’Neil said. But Mr Sukkar said because rent, grocery and power bills were up so considerably, superannuation needed to be used for a deposit, and it was often forgotten the scheme would require the super withdraw amount is put back into the super account.

Mr Sukkar argued allowing people to negatively gear their mortgage repayment interest charge for five years would increase supply, because it provided developers with certainty.

Ms O’Neil the scheme was “sloppy work”, “dressed up as a housing policy”, saying “the Liberals have cooked up with a generational triple whammy for young people”.

Both politicians agreed the country needed a period of wage growth outpacing house price growth. And they agreed a drop in house prices would leave relatively new owners in a disastrous negative equity hole.

Mr Sukkar said at least 500,000 new suburban development homes “could be done very quickly”, with the Coalition’s $5bn water, sewerage and telecommunications funding scheme. The current government had reduced the backlog on this infrastructure, Ms O’Neil said, adding housing approvals had increased 26 per cent in the past 12 months.

“You’re clearly going to fall catastrophically short of the 1.2 million home promise. The flagship $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund has not delivered any homes … How on earth can any Australian believe you?” Mr Sukkar questioned.

“Do you know how many homes the Coalition built, social and affordable housing, over their almost a decade – 373,” she retorted.

“We’re not going to get anywhere in this debate if we put together a bunch of silly policies, written on the back of a napkin, that are going to build fewer homes for the country that will be more expensive.”