Peter Dutton, who has made a reported $30 million from selling property, has wheeled out his 20-year-old son in an attempt to relate to the rest of us on the housing crisis. Uh huh.
Speaking to reporters in Brisbane on Monday, 20-year-old Harry Dutton, a carpentry apprentice, repeated what we’ve all been saying as our politicians continue to point fingers: that home ownership’s pretty out of reach for young Australians.
“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 said.
“We’re saving like mad but it doesn’t look much better in the near future. But we’d love that to change.”
Given he’s the son of one of Australia’s most prominent politicians — and one who has a hefty property portfolio to boot — it would surprise exactly no one that Dutton was asked if he’d support Harry and “give him a bit of help” with the house deposit. (The opposition leader’s previously said his daughter Rebecca, 23, is also “madly saving as a childcare worker on a pretty low income” to buy a house.)
Dutton, however, evaded the question over whether his kids could call on the bank of mum and dad.
“I haven’t finished the excellent points I was making. The next point as to why people should vote Liberal is we can manage the economy well. Labor always trash it,” the opposition leader said before moving onto another question.
Dutton’s extensive property portfolio has seen him make around $30 million of property transactions across 26 pieces of real estate in the last three decades, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. Since buying his first home at 19, he’s 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.
You know, pretty relatable stuff.
But pressed on whether Harry could count on getting a hand, given this significant standing, Dutton instead rehashed the usual rhetoric about Labor’s economic management.
“I don’t want to accept a situation where only mums and dads who can afford to give their kids help, they’re the kids that can buy homes. Just not acceptable in your country. I really strongly, firmly believe in home ownership, I have spoken about it I think from the first press conference I gave as leader,” he said, per news.com.au.
His latest appearance in Brisbane follows a recent bid by the Coalition to target Gen Z and millennial homebuyers in week three of the election campaign. The key promise: first-time buyers of newly built homes could deduct up to $12,000 a year in mortgage interest from their taxes for five years.
Participants eligible for the scheme would be able to claim back the interest paid on the first $650,000 of their mortgage. This will be means-tested at $175,000 income for singles and $250,000 for couples.
The party’s housing platform also includes allowing first-home buyers to tap into $50,000 of their superannuation savings.
Meanwhile, Labor’s spruiked its own housing policy this week, which includes a five per cent deposit for all first home buyers and $10 billion earmarked towards building 100,000 new homes that will be available to that cohort.
But neither policy’s done much to win over economists and policymakers, who are warning these will only result in inflating house prices without addressing a supply shortage. TLDR; it’s still pretty grim out there.
And whether Harry ends up relying on his own savings or not, it’s hard to argue the rest of us don’t really have any investment properties to fall back on.
Lead image: AAP Photos
