Federal election 2022 to hang on housing as Scott Morrison chases young voters
Scott Morrison ignites battle over housing affordability after offering first-home buyers access to their super savings to crack the market.
Scott Morrison has ignited a final-week election battle with Anthony Albanese over housing affordability after offering first-home buyers access to their super savings to crack the property market and declaring a re-elected Coalition would take the nation to “a new era of opportunity’’.
The Prime Minister’s last-ditch push to win over younger voters and families has set-up a five-day housing showdown with Labor and union-controlled super funds, which suggested the Coalition policy would drive up prices.
Speaking at the Coalition campaign launch in Brisbane on Sunday, Mr Morrison said the super homebuyer scheme, allowing first-home buyers to invest up to 40 per cent, or $50,000 of their nest eggs, was a “gamechanger”.
Mr Morrison, who also announced an additional $454m for seven unmanned RAAF Ghost Bat aerial vehicles and a new $375m Queensland cancer centre, is aiming to repeat the success of his 2019 election campaign when he turned to housing affordability in the final week.
With the Coalition trailing Labor in public opinion polls and senior strategists concerned about narrowing the gap in the final five days, Mr Morrison told the crowd of 350 supporters that he was ready to move Australia to a “new era of opportunity” if voters backed him on Saturday.
“I’ve got a big plan. I’m seeking a second term, because I’m just warming up. I’m seeking a second term to ensure that we can take this to the next level. To those better days,” Mr Morrison said.
In a low-key campaign launch at the Brisbane Convention Centre, attended by former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and senior cabinet ministers, Mr Morrison delivered a one-hour speech outlining his achievements and promising to change.
He said the super homebuyer scheme, which was strongly endorsed by the housing and building industries but attacked by Labor, unions, super industry groups and former prime minister Paul Keating, complemented his plan to unlock housing supply by offering downsizing incentives to 1.3 million empty nesters and pensioners.
“Other countries, such as New Zealand and Canada, also have policies that allow people to use their retirement savings to help them buy their home. And under a Morrison government, you will be able to do that too,” he said. “This is about increasing the choices available to you within your super – it’s your money. This will responsibly ensure that the majority of your super remains in your existing fund and maintains the diversification in your savings.
“This will be a game changer for thousands of Australian families who sit and look at that money on their balance and go, if only I had that to help me now.”
After last week pledging to modify his “bulldozer” leadership style as the country moved out of the pandemic crisis, Mr Morrison told disillusioned voters he was “ready to get on with it if you give us your support next Saturday”.
“This requires a very different approach from us as a government. We stand on the edge of a new era of opportunity. Better days are now ahead. But we cannot take them for granted. As a government we have the higher gears to secure that opportunity. And I know our economic plan is working, because Australians are working,” he said. “I also know Australians. They’re tired of politics. It’s been an exhausting time and they’ve certainly had enough of governments telling them how to live their lives and I agree.”
With senior Coalition figures on Sunday conceding that winning majority government on May 21 was increasingly unlikely, Mr Morrison pledged that if “re-elected you will see me as your Prime Minister, our government and our nation hit that extra gear needed to secure our nation’s future for our better days”.
“To step beyond where we are today and put this pandemic behind us. We will apply the hard lessons we have learned so we can take Australia to the next level. That’s where I’m focused. On the future. On your future.
“This election is about you. It’s about how we create the right conditions for you.”
Mr Morrison said for most Australians owning a home would be their largest asset and a “source of security in retirement”.
“Buying your first home is never easy. Over the years, it has become harder. We’ve got to start with freeing up more homes for people to be able to access. We want to remove the barriers to senior Australians downsizing.
“Our opponents have a different vision of home ownership in this country. The real difference is that Labor always wants to put the government at the centre of everything. We want to put you and your family at the centre. We want Australians to own their own home.”
Despite Mr Albanese and opposition housing spokesman Jason Clare backing most of the government’s existing and new housing policies, Labor viewed a hit on superannuation as a “red line”. Mr Keating, the architect of Australia’s superannuation system, said the Coalition objected to “working Australians having wealth in retirement independent of the government”.
“The policy change announced by the Prime Minister to allow people to access their superannuation for housing deposits amounts to no more than another frontal assault by the Liberal Party on the superannuation system,” Mr Keating said.
“The Libs believe ordinary bods should be happy with the age pension. Let them know their place.”
Mr Clare said voters would see through Mr Morrison’s election eve super homebuyer scheme. “This will just make it harder. This will just put fuel on the fire and make prices even worse,” he said.
Mr Morrison’s super homebuyer scheme, drawing on work done by Liberal MPs Jason Falinski and Tim Wilson, comes two weeks after the Opposition Leader announced Labor’s housing affordability policy at his campaign launch in Perth.
Under one of Labor’s policies, the government would take a 40 per cent stake in the homes of 10,000 low-and-middle income earners with a 2 per cent deposit. The policy has been criticised for its narrow scope, impact on homeowners if they earn too much money or move interstate, and failure to address economy-wide housing affordability pressures.
Housing Minister Michael Sukkar said Labor must answer whether it stands for “first-home buyers utilising their own money in a way that won’t diminish their retirement savings or the union super funds we know dictate their policy on these matters”.
To access the Coalition’s ATO-run scheme, first-home buyers would need a deposit of at least 5 per cent.
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