Peter Dutton has made $30 million worth of property transactions during his life, but would not say if he would help his children with deposits.
Peter Dutton has made $30 million worth of property transactions during his life, but would not say if he would help his children with deposits. Peter Dutton has made $30 million worth of property transactions during his life, but would not say if he would help his children with deposits.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton knocked back repeated questions on whether he would help his son to buy a home after Harry Dutton joined his father on the campaign trail and said he was “saving like mad” to come up with a deposit for a property.
In a bid to appeal to Gen Z and Millennial voters frustrated by the housing crisis, Dutton spruiked his campaign launch policy in the marginal Brisbane seat of Ryan on Monday. The pledge allows first home buyers to claim the interest paid on their mortgage as a tax deduction – worth up to $12,000 a year for five years – when they buy a newly built property.
Dutton had been seeking to reshape his campaign to focus on housing and focus on voters struggling to enter the market, after a launch in which he also pledged a one-off tax offset of $1200 for middle-income earners.
Harry, a 20-year-old apprentice carpenter, told reporters it was tough to buy a home and he was “saving like mad”.
“I’m saving up for a house and so is my sister and a lot of my mates but it’s almost impossible to get in the current state,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
Asked if he would help Harry, the opposition leader said he did not want Australian parents to have to dip into their savings to help their kids.
Asked a second time directly why he would not help his son buy a home, Dutton refused to engage with the question.
“I haven’t finished the excellent points I was making,” he said.
In the Dutton family video released by the Liberal Party at Sunday’s campaign launch, Dutton said his daughter Rebecca was “madly saving as a childcare worker on a pretty low income” for a house.
“When she does the sum, she realises that after five, probably even ten years of really hard saving, she’s not going to be close to a deposit,” he said.
In February, this masthead reported Dutton made $30 million of property transactions across 26 pieces of real estate over 35 years.
Since buying his first home at 19, Dutton has made property purchases totalling $12 million and sales of $18.8 million in transactions that he has frequently declared to parliament late, partially, and in two cases, not at all.
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was pilloried in 2016 when he said wealthy parents should “shell out” and buy their children houses.
The off-the-cuff remark on ABC Melbourne landed Turnbull in hot water, as Labor accused him of being out of touch.
“You should support them, a wealthy man like you,” Turnbull told ABC Melboune’s then-host Jon Faine.
Both Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced criticism from economists for presenting housing policies that could fuel demand for homes and jack up prices without doing enough for supply.
The Coalition’s $1.25 billion mortgage relief for first-home buyers assumes about 30,000 would use the scheme each year. It would only apply to the first $650,000 of a mortgage and would expire after five years.
They would also allow first-home buyers to withdraw up to 40 per cent of their superannuation – up to a maximum of $50,000 – towards a deposit.
Dutton did not say on Monday if the Coalition would announce other policies to pay for the housing pledge.
“You’ll see the costings released closer to the day. But obviously, we’ve done a lot of work … and our priority for Australians is to help them get into homeownership,” he said.
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