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Opposition leader Peter Dutton took his son out on the campaign trail as he assured his government would offer housing hope for young Australians like 20-year-old Harry.
Dutton was joined by his son Harry at a press conference in Brisbane to spruik the Coalition’s plan to offer tax breaks on first-home loan repayments.
Despite his father’s position of power, the 20-year-old apprentice carpenter said the market was still difficult to navigate for him and his family.
“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 on Monday.
“We’re saving like mad but it doesn’t look much better in the near future.
“But we’d love that to change.”
Asked if he would be a guarantor as the bank of mum and dad, Peter Dutton did not directly answer the question.
“I don’t want to be accepting a situation where only mums and dads who can afford to give their kids hope — that they’re the kids that can buy homes,” he said.
The two were travelling together in the north-west Brisbane seat of Ryan, which the Liberals hope to win back from the Greens.
It is held on a 2.6 per cent margin and could be a crucial electorate in an increasingly close contest.
Coalition’s housing policy targets young voters
Dutton pitched the party’s new housing policy, revealed on Sunday, as a way to get Australians into home ownership.
“It kills me when you hear young Australians saying, ‘I’m working hard, we’re putting money aside but we just can’t afford and we don’t ever think we’re going to be able to afford a home’,” he said.
“That’s the common story — I’m not going to accept that as prime minister.”
The policy would allow first-time buyers of newly built homes to deduct interest payments from their income taxes on the first $650,000 of a mortgage.
It’s part of the Coalition’s broader effort to court the youth vote as gen Z and millennials are poised to become the dominant voting bloc at the 3 May .
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