Federal election 2025: Albanese and Dutton continue to feel the heat on housing

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has reluctantly confirmed he will be helping his own children out with their first-home deposits “at some stage”, as housing continued to dominate the campaign on Tuesday.

Mr Dutton - again flanked by his son Harry, this time in the peri-urban fringe of Melbourne - attempted to spruik his latest policy offering, when he was pressed on whether wages should rise faster than house prices, and what was reasonable.

Meanwhile in Tasmania and then in Melbourne, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hit back at experts criticising Labor’s policies while refusing to release “cabinet documents” revealing how much house prices would increase under an expanded first-home buyer Commonwealth guarantee scheme.

Ministers have said Treasury advice found the policy - which would allow first-home buyers to take out a mortgage with just a five per cent deposit without fees - won’t have a “significant” impact, but the PM declined to put a figure to it and won’t release the document detailing that number.

“We don’t release Cabinet papers,” he said.

When pressed for a definition of “significant”, Mr Albanese said: “We don’t release Treasury documentation. You have the figure. The idea that they put a precise dollar value on something is not right”.

Pressed again, he reiterated that he wouldn’t release Cabinet papers.

Labor has also announced a fresh supply-side policy, pledging $10 billion to build 100,000 homes exclusively for first-time buyers.

While noting this, Mr Albanese took aim at some of the criticism levelled by economists at Labor’s policies, saying they hadn’t looked closely enough at what his Government was promising.

“The key difference between the two approaches is supply. We have a supply side answer on public housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund. On private rentals through the build-to-rent scheme. On home building and construction for first home buyers,” he said.

Mr Dutton also faced questions about what impacts the Coalition’s proposed policy to allow some first-home buyers to claim up to $12,000 a year in mortgage interest off their tax for the first five years would have on prices.

He declined to agree with his shadow housing minister Michael Sukkar, who told ABC Radio on Tuesday morning that it was “unquestionable… we all want to see wages outstripping the growth of housing”.

To a first question, Mr Dutton said “I want to make sure that we have a market which is accessible for young Australians now”.

Pressed whether he was “willing” to explicitly agree with Mr Sukkar’s comments, Mr Dutton refused to engage, saying the journalist only got one question.

Mr Dutton was also dogged by questions about his intention to help his own children get into the property market, after he brought his 20-year-old son Harry along on the campaign trail for a second day in a row.

The younger Dutton told the media on Monday he had been “saving like mad” to buy his first property, but his father had refused to confirm whether his three children would be benefiting from the bank of mum and dad.

Asked repeatedly again on Tuesday, Mr Dutton finally relented.

“I think, like every parent, I despair at the thought of our kids not getting into housing because they want their own place,” Mr Dutton said.

“I think our household’s no different to many households where we want our kids to work hard, to save, and we’ll help them with a deposit at some stage.”

He said families across Australia “haven’t got that luxury”, and while he and Mr Albanese “might be able to help our kids … it’s not about us”.

Mr Albanese was later asked whether he would help his son, Nathan, with a house deposit - but said that was not anyone else’s business.

“Families don’t have a place in these issues. I don’t comment on other people’s families, I don’t go into my own personal details,” he said.