Dutton’s son Harry says ‘it’s almost impossible’ for him to get into the housing market
Peter Dutton’s son is at the press conference, and he chimes in to say it’s “almost impossible” for him and his sister to buy a home in the near future.
Harry Dutton has been on the road with his father for the last couple of days.
I am saving up for a house and so is my sister, Bec, and a lot of my mates, but as you probably heard, it’s almost impossible to get in, in the current state. So I mean we’re saving like mad but it doesn’t look like we’ll get there in the near future.
Dutton senior though is well known to be quite the property and sharemarket investor, with his wealth coming into the spotlight a little earlier this year.
Key events
Dutton on teal threat in his marginal seat of Dickson
Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson in Queensland sits on a pretty tight margin. It was a margin of just 1.7% at the last election in 2022, narrowly beating Labor’s candidate, Ali France.
France is running for a third time this election, and Dutton is also facing a major teal threat, with community independent Ellie Smith also running.
Dutton says he knows Dickson has always been a marginal seat.
Dickson has always been a marginal seat and I always worked hard and I never take it for granted.
The teal campaign in my seat who’s, just on the polling I have seen, just got double-digit primary vote is spending a lot of money, is funded by a billionaire out of Sydney, [she] is actually a Green trying to pretend to people that she’s not.
South-east Queensland is a really interesting area, with three seats that turned Green at the last election – two claimed from the Liberals and one from Labor.
Dutton says he believes the Liberal party can win back the two seats – Ryan and Brisbane – that were taken by the Greens.
Dutton says international students part of reason ‘Aussie kids are 20 deep in a queue to try and rent a unit’
On renters, and how they might be feeling abandoned by the government and opposition, Dutton says his policies on cutting migration and international students, plus cost of living relief, will make life easier for renters.
He says international students are part of the reason why “Aussie kids are 20 deep in a queue to try and rent a unit”.
But when challenged on the fact that research has found there’s no correlation between rising rents and international student numbers, Dutton says “of course they are”.
Of course they are. I mean, where are these people living? If people are coming here through the migration program, understandably they want a place to live, but I’m not going to see Australians displaced from housing. There’s only so much housing stock.
Dutton has been using this line that migrants and international students are fuelling the housing crisis for some time.
But the facts are a little different:
Dutton argues Coalition’s promised spending isn’t ‘recurrent’, like Labor’s
One of the biggest criticisms of the policy announcements yesterday – from both the Liberals and Labor – is just how much money they’re spending.
Dutton is asked whether his announcement undercuts his own criticism of Labor being a big spending government.
Dutton argues that the Coalition’s announcements aren’t “recurrent” spending.
We haven’t locked in a recurrent spend. So for, you know, the economists-minded people, we haven’t locked in recurrent spend like Labor has. They spent over $17 billion under their tax cut, which is 70 cents a day starting in 15 months’ time. Australians need help now, which is why we have done the 25 cents a litre tax cut on petrol. We don’t lock that in.
Is that petrol excise cut inflationary? Dutton says it’s not, and says that has “been pointed out before”.
Dutton says despite cutting migration, tradies will be “prioritised”
Will there be enough tradies to even build the homes that the Coalition is promising, when they’ve also committed to cut migration numbers?
Dutton says there will be more tradies under a Coalition government, and despite cutting migration, tradies will be “prioritised”.
But there’s a fair bit of back and forth between Dutton and reporters on this point, and he can’t say exactly how many more tradies there will be, and how many will come in from overseas.
Dutton says:
Depends how many applicants there are and depends what demand there is for the skills and the whole skills list …
Under Labor, they can’t come in because they’re not prioritised. Under us they come in.
Again he’s challenged on exactly how many tradies will be brought in, but he won’t say.
Dutton’s son Harry says ‘it’s almost impossible’ for him to get into the housing market
Peter Dutton’s son is at the press conference, and he chimes in to say it’s “almost impossible” for him and his sister to buy a home in the near future.
Harry Dutton has been on the road with his father for the last couple of days.
I am saving up for a house and so is my sister, Bec, and a lot of my mates, but as you probably heard, it’s almost impossible to get in, in the current state. So I mean we’re saving like mad but it doesn’t look like we’ll get there in the near future.
Dutton senior though is well known to be quite the property and sharemarket investor, with his wealth coming into the spotlight a little earlier this year.
Dutton is asked whether he wants house prices to go up or down
Peter Dutton has batted away criticism from economists such as Saul Eslake that the Coalition’s housing policy will push prices up.
Dutton says the Coalition is the “only party that is addressing the supply side”, with their $5bn allocated to councils to fix infrastructure surrounding housing developments like roads and sewerage.
Dutton has promised that funding would unlock up to 500,000 new homes.
This is a game changer for young Australians. It will increase the supply of housing, as Michael [Sukkar] points out, by 30,000 home a year and it will do that in part because the demand will be there, unit blocks will become more viable to develop.
It kills me to hear young Australians saying I’m working hard, we’re both working hard, we’re putting money aside, we just can’t afford, we don’t think we’ll ever be able to afford a home.
Asked whether Dutton wants house prices to go up or down, he doesn’t directly answer the question. He says he doesn’t want the economy to crash and home prices to drop from $750,000 down to $600,000 “in 18 months time under an Albanese-[Adam] Bandt government. That would be a disaster,” he says.
You can read more from Saul Eslake, who’s just dropped this criticism of both policies here:
Shadow minister says Labor housing policy a ‘hoax’, Coalition’s a ‘game changer’
Peter Dutton is in Brisbane today, and is standing up with his shadow housing minister, Michael Sukkar, to spruik their housing policy.
There’s hi-vis in the foreground and excavation equipment in the background.
Sukkar is up first and calls Labor’s housing commitment a “hoax”.
Seeing yesterday’s announcement I think is a bit of a hoax … What genius decides you create more places in a program that has places still unused.
He then calls the Coalition’s policy a “game changer”.
Today’s first home buyer mortgage deductibility providing first home buyers, a couple on average wages, $55,000 to put towards a mortgage, we think is an absolute game changer for first home buyers.
Just a reminder – experts including economist Saul Eslake have been extremely critical of the policy. He told ABC TV a little earlier that the policy would “supercharge housing prices, so in that sense it will actually make the problem of housing affordability worse”.
He also told the ABC he has concerns about Labor’s policy but “they are not as big as the concerns I have about the Coalition’s policy”.
If you wanted to relive that moment where Tanya Plibersek and Albanese very awkwardly greeted each other at the rally yesterday… you can do so here:
I’ve already watched it a handful of times and I can’t stop.
ASX rises in calm opening after chaotic period
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares have rebounded in early trading this morning, rising just over half a percentage point after more components of Donald Trump’s tariff regime were wound back.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to the 7,700 point level in the opening hour of trading, rising in response to the US decision to exclude imports of smartphones and laptops from new tariffs.
Investors have had to contend with wild swings triggered by changes to the US trade policies, with share prices pushed around by extreme bouts of relief and fear.
Australia is still subject to the US’ “baseline” 10% tariff, and the benchmark is trading below where it was before details of the new tariffs were released late on 2 April in Washington.
There has also been no let up in the tariff battle between the US and China.
Chris Weston, the head of research at Melbourne-based financial firm Pepperstone, said on Monday that after a period of chaotic price action, “chinks of light poke through the forest canopy” which may see a relative calm return to markets.
The Australian dollar has rocketed ever since Trump started to back down on some of the more extreme elements of the tariff regime. It was trading above US63c on Monday, after threatening to plunge below the US59c barrier last week.
Cait Kelly
Activists say Labor and Liberal housing policies fall short of what is needed to solve deepening crisis
Everybody’s Home has called on the major parties to present more ambitious housing policies to Australians ahead of the election, warning that the announcements fall short of what is needed to end the country’s deepening crisis.
Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said:
The promises made by the major parties [falls] well short of what’s needed to address the housing crisis – in fact, some elements could make it even worse.
The Coalition’s proposal to allow mortgage payments to be tax deductible for first home buyers is a form of negative gearing for non-investors, a move that will give more help to people on high incomes and could push home prices even higher. To make housing more affordable, we need to get rid of tax breaks when it comes to property, not create more.
Labor’s home deposit support for first-home buyers will also add to demand. Building 100,000 homes is a good step, but they aren’t guaranteed to be affordable. Australia doesn’t just need new homes, we need homes that people can actually afford.
To turn the housing crisis around, the next federal government must invest significantly in building more social housing; low-cost rentals that are guaranteed to be affordable and won’t drive up demand and house prices. We have a social housing shortfall of 640,000 homes in this country and it’s growing.
Albanese praises SA premiere Malinauskas as city pitches itself to host climate conference
Adelaide’s bid to host the COP climate conference hasn’t come out of nowhere – premier Peter Malinauskas came to Canberra late last year to put his state at the front of the queue to host.
Earlier, during his press conference, Albanese was singing Adelaide and Malinauskas’ praises:
He [Malinauskas] is putting Adelaide on the map as a global city … And one of the things that a climate change conference would do is showcase this beautiful city of Adelaide to the entire world.
And when you look at the work that the premier is doing in renewables, leading Australia as South Australia [as he] has for a long period of time, then I can’t think of anywhere better than South Australia.
Josh Butler
Albanese visits food services not-for-profit in Adelaide’s Sturt electorate
Anthony Albanese is now in the Adelaide electorate of Sturt, held by the Liberals, and a major Labor target. He’s visiting Nonna’s Cucina, a local non-for-profit making meals for the elderly and those with disabilities.
Labor is pledging $95,000 to the enterprise in an election promise.
Nonna’s boasts 100 volunteers who make over 56,000 meals each year. Albanese is meeting workers making meals in the kitchen.
What happened yesterday on the campaign trail?
Following the morning rush (and before Peter Dutton stands up for his presser today), let’s jump back for a moment to what actually went down at the major party launches yesterday.
We’ve got you covered on what we learned from Albanese and Dutton’s speeches yesterday – the sort of vision they have for the next parliamentary term, as well as what those housing policies actually mean and what impact they’ll have.
Here was Albo’s speech:
Here was Dutton’s:
And here’s a full deep dive on their housing promises:
Tax reform questions raised as both parties push costly ‘sugar hit’ policies
The structural tax reform question is challenging both parties, who have accused each other of just putting forward “sugar hit” policies over the weekend.
While Labor’s tax cuts permanently lower one of the tax brackets, both Labor and Liberal promised over the weekend more temporary cost of living relief for households. The Coalition meanwhile announced a one-off tax refund for low and middle income earners.
Over on Sky News, Laura Jayes asks the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, when the Coalition will look at actual structural reform and tackle bracket creep.
Well, when we can afford it. But the here and now problem is the human toll that …
Jayes interjects, pointing out there are deficits forecast for the next decade. Littleproud won’t answer, and turns back to the temporary fuel excise cut that the Coalition has promised to implement immediately if they win government.
