Follow liveAnywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAlbanese tells Australian UFC fighter to ‘go hard’ in message of support before headline matchSome Australians will be glued to a brutal fight between two battle-hardened competitors duking it out in a no-holds barred street fight televised today across the land. And it’s sure to get ugly.I’m in my own title fight at the moment, but I want to wish you all the best for yours. I know you’ll dig deep and make Australians proud. You are one of Australia’s great sporting champions. When you enter the octagon this weekend, Australians will be cheering you on. Go hard. Continue reading…Follow liveAnywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAlbanese tells Australian UFC fighter to ‘go hard’ in message of support before headline matchSome Australians will be glued to a brutal fight between two battle-hardened competitors duking it out in a no-holds barred street fight televised today across the land. And it’s sure to get ugly.I’m in my own title fight at the moment, but I want to wish you all the best for yours. I know you’ll dig deep and make Australians proud. You are one of Australia’s great sporting champions. When you enter the octagon this weekend, Australians will be cheering you on. Go hard. Continue reading…
We’ve heard housing announcements from both major parties today aimed at first home buyers. Here is a recap of what each is offering:
Labor has announced a $10bn plan to help build 100,000 new homes nationwide for first home buyers.
Under the plan, Labor would open the program to all first home buyers, allowing them to secure a home with only a 5% deposit, with the government guaranteeing part. It will also announce moves to help buyers avoid pricey mortgage insurance.
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, said the sods on the developments would begin turning in the 2026-27 financial year and homeowners would start moving in the year after. She also said the homes “in all likelihood” would be income tested.
Meanwhile, the Coalition would allow first-time buyers of newly built homes to deduct mortgage payments from income taxes, the ABC reported. The policy would mean a family with an average income would be about $11,000 a year better off – or $55,000 over five years.
We’ll bring you more details on the Coalition’s plan as we learn more.
Ryan asked what she would do in event of hung parliament
Taking a final question, Monique Ryan was asked what she would do if the election resulted in a hung parliament.
She said it was difficult to say because “we are seeing even today the major parties are bringing out policies on the fly”.
We’re less than three weeks from the election and the opposition has launched its first significant housing policy.
What I would do in the event of being re-elected and neither major party are able to form government, would be to … sit down and try to determine which of them were best placed to provide the mature well thought out policy that the people of Kooyong told me they want.
Monique Ryan was asked about her fellow independent Allegra Spender, who said she has paid an agency for influencers to create social media content.
Ryan said she wasn’t doing this herself and had a media adviser to make social media content.
The reality is young [people] don’t watch Insiders or read the papers. They get their news off social media. I have the youngest electorate in Victoria; it is important I engage well with the young people …
I would argue that some of the rightwing press in this country should come with a verification from the Liberal party because I do think that much of what is put in the press and the rightwing press, in particular, has been fed to it by my political opponents.
Asked if she had a problem with politicians paying for content in this way, Ryan initially said:
We pay to generate the content we put to the voters. Not sure there’s an issue there.
She then said, “I don’t have an opinion on it.” And pressed on the issue again, Ryan said:
I have to give it thought. It’s not something I have given great thought. I haven’t engaged in anything in it … I think media diversity and the way that our media works in this country is something that would certainly merit greater examination and something we can talk about.
Ryan weighs up both major parties’ housing announcements
Monique Ryan has been asked to weigh in on both of the major parties’ latest housing announcements – first is Labor’s $10bn plan to help build 100,000 homes for first home buyers.
She said policies that advance help for young Australians were “welcome”.
I think the most important part of the policy platform that Labor rolled out is 100,000 new homes. It seems supply is a major problem in the market and it’s been the sticking point for making houses affordable.
And what does she make of Peter Dutton’s plan to allow first-time buyers of newly built homes to deduct mortgage payments from income taxes?
Ryan said this was “interesting”, but the problem was it “doesn’t address supply to any significant extent”.
We don’t have any detail, nor any detail from the opposition about the cost.
Does Ryan want to see the negative gearing rules changed?
Monique Ryan said: “We need to look at all the rules around tax, at a federal and state level, to see if they are fit for purpose.”
One thing I have heard every day for four weeks is Victorians’ frustration with land tax, with the capricious land tax that the Victorian state government has levied in the last few years. The way that feeds to the federal system is unpleasant for many people. We need the federal and state governments to be working together on these issues, not at odds with each other.
Ryan labels Coalition tax cut measure ‘a one-off sugar hit’
As we reported earlier, the Coalition has announced a $10bn tax cut measure, giving Australians earning up to $144,000 up to $1,200 in tax relief in the upcoming financial year.
Monique Ryan labelled the plan as a “one-off sugar hit which, let’s face it, is the desperate act of someone whose electoral campaign is tanking, and who is looking for some cheap votes”.
I don’t think it would be in the best interests of the country to give everyone a one-off sugar hit tax cut at this point in time. We know that that would be inflationary.
Monique Ryan on the US-Australia relationship, Trump and Aukus
The independent MP for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, is also on Insiders this morning – and first up, she is asked about Aukus and Donald Trump.
She was shown an excerpt from the Greens’ leader, Adam Bandt’s, speech at the National Press Club during the week, in which he expressed concern over the “big loser energy that is coming out of the White House” and said Australia was “joined at the hip” with Trump.
Ryan labelled the specific comments as “undergraduate populism that doesn’t sit well with electorates like Kooyong”, but said more broadly, people in her electorate were concerned about “potential issues with Aukus” and the defence alliance with the US.
Ryan said the US “might not always be a country which works to act in our best interests, both in trade and on defence”. She said:
I think it is time for us to think about diversifying our interests as a country, to build our resilience …
What we’ve seen is you couldn’t put an envelope between [the major parties] in their rush to be non-partisan on Aukus and the like, but many people in electorates like Kooyong are concerned that we will never see the Virginia submarines and that we are wasting potentially $400bn or more on a partnership which won’t pay off in the way that we need it to down the track.
With the federal election fast approaching and the political parties and candidates imploring you to vote for them, you may be wondering who they even are.
In this episode of Voting 101, Matilda Boseley gives you a brief guide to all the major – and some minor – parties vying for your vote this election:
‘Policy on the run’: O’Neil weighs in on Coalition’s new housing plan
Clare O’Neil was also asked about the Coalition’s plan, announced earlier this morning, to allow first-time buyers of newly built homes to deduct mortgage payments from income taxes.
The housing minister said it was a “bit early” for her to comment as she had not seen the detail, but added:
I haven’t seen anything on this proposal [other] than the fact that it seems to have emerged and perhaps not gone through a proper shadow cabinet process.
What we’ve seen today is public policy on the run for a campaign on the slide here, and it’s been chaotic … so let’s see if this is still their policy by the end of the week. Maybe then we will take it seriously.
Will the government bring in more construction workers?
Clare O’Neil said it was a “demand-driven system”, and after the government brought in around 10,000 workers last year, she expected the numbers to “continue along those lines”.
We have a demand-driven migration system. In the last year, we brought about 10,000 workers into the country who have construction skills and I would imagine the numbers will continue along those lines …
The government doesn’t set how many construction workers come in each year. It is a demand-driven system.
O’Neil says government-built homes would ‘in all likelihood’ be income tested
Clare O’Neil said the government-built homes would be cheaper than those built by the private sector and would be negotiated on a state-by-state basis.
She pointed to South Australia as an example and said:
In the South Australian example, we are building homes that are affordable entry level of the market, somewhere between [$500,000] and $600,000. It is pretty hard to find new affordable housing at that price in most parts of the country right now.
O’Neil said the houses would “in all likelihood” be income tested.
We are targeting people who won’t otherwise have an opportunity for home ownership. That is what the Australian people expect of the government.
Housing minister says government not competing with private market in housing plan
Clare O’Neil was also asked if the government would compete with the private market as part of this plan.
She rejected this, saying the type of housing Australia urgently needed was “not getting built, so we are not competing”.
The housing that is being built today is not affordable for most young people who are entering the market and that’s the real problem. What we are doing is supplementing supply at the affordable end of the market, and that’s where it is really needed.
How long will it take to get those 100,000 homes?
Clare O’Neil said it would be an eight-year plan, and if re-elected, Labor would sit down with the states and “map out where these projects will be built”.
They will involve state, local and federal government land; they will involve some private developers and some state agencies. We will start turning sods on these developments in the 2026-27 financial year and homeowners [will start] moving in the year after.
O’Neil defended this timeframe, saying the average time to build an apartment was three years.
Our government is doing a lot to truncate those timelines, but it is the reality of the situation.
O’Neil says Labor’s plan won’t have ‘significant impact’ on housing prices
Clare O’Neil was asked whether Labor’s plan would impact house prices. She said it wouldn’t have a “significant impact”.
We have 700,000 property transactions happening in Australia each year. We are talking about a pretty narrow band of new first home buyers in the market.
O’Neil outlines Labor’s $10bn plan to build 100,000 homes for first home buyers
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, is speaking with ABC’s Insiders this morning about Labor’s $10bn plan to help build 100,000 homes for first home buyers.
She described Australia’s housing crisis as “a generation in the making [and] a life-defining issue for literally millions in our country”. O’Neil outlined Labor’s plan as this:
For the first time in Australian history, the Commonwealth will partner with the states to build 100,000 homes exclusively to sell to first home buyers. Those first home buyers won’t be competing with property investors or people of other generations, but are a direct shot of owning their own home.
O’Neil said that older generations were “not hearing the level of distress that young people around our country are in”.
We’ve got a generation of young people who are putting off the decision to have children or deciding not to undertake further study or working in jobs that aren’t right for them just because they can’t get into stable housing.
This policy reduces the amount of time it takes a young couple to save for a deposit from between 10 and 11 years, all the way back to two to three years.
Paterson says ‘making Australia great again’ is ‘not my style of politics’
The Coalition’s campaign spokesperson, James Paterson, was up on Sky News just earlier, also weighing in on Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s remarks that the Coalition would “make Australia great again”.
Paterson dodged an initial question and instead took aim at Labor, but when asked if the Coalition was hoping to “make Australia great again,” he responded:
Well, that’s not my style of politics, Andrew. What we’re focused on is the damage that’s been done to our country over the last three years …
The ABC has reported a new Coalition election pledge to allow first-time buyers of newly built homes to deduct mortgage payments from income taxes.
The policy would mean a family with an average income would be about $11,000 a year better off – or $55,000 over five years.
This comes as Labor has announced a $10bn plan to help build 100,000 homes for first home buyers.
We’ll bring you more details and commentary throughout the day as we learn more.