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LABOR PLAYING POLITICS ON HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Bill Shorten’s lame attempt last night to outline Labor’s position on housing affordability has fallen flat.
Once again, Mr Shorten has made it clear that he will do nothing to ease the pressure on first home buyers struggling to get a foot in the door.
To make matters worse, Mr Shorten was seemingly clueless – or deliberately misleading – on the detail of the Turnbull Government’s First Home Super Saver Scheme.
Mr Shorten’s claim that we are “allocating $565 for each first home” is completely unfounded.
He claims to have “studied the detail” of this program, but the First Home Super Saver Scheme will allow couples to build a $60,000 deposit inside superannuation.
And adding insult to injury, it looks like Labor’s economics go-to man, Professor Andrew Leigh, has embarrassed himself with a train wreck interview in which he couldn’t explain how the scheme works.
BOURCHIER: But how is that the case, when the proposal that the Government has put forward is about not taxing additional amounts that you can put into your super account, that amount would be quarantined and then used as part of a house deposit?
LEIGH: Dan, you are talking about raiding superannuation.
BOURCHIER: How is it a raid though?
LEIGH: Because it’s money that’s coming out of your superannuation account.
BOURCHIER: But you know that it’s two separate things?
Our policy is not a cash hand out, nor is it reducing people’s superannuation. Instead, it will allow people the flexibility to contribute their own money into their own superannuation savings with generous tax concessions.
It’s clear Labor is playing politics with first home buyers, in opposing a policy they don’t even understand.
Mr Shorten also claims his ‘plan’ will deliver “55,000 homes over three years” and “create 25,000 new jobs every year”.
These numbers are just plucked from various reports by various groups, including the Labor-aligned McKell Institute – a dog’s breakfast of ‘modelling’.
Labor has no plan for housing affordability – they only have a housing tax. We know it will do nothing but hurt hardworking Australians, particularly renters and first home buyers.
It’s time for Bill Shorten and Labor to get real on housing affordability and support our comprehensive plan to address the issue.
Media contact: Julianna Burgess – 0428 401 559