Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Today the Treasurer said in relation to the housing market:

I had discussions with the Council of Financial Regulators and we've been looking at these issues on the investor side, on the demand side …

Has the Council of Financial Regulators advised the Treasurer, formally or informally, that it has concerns about proposals to allow access to superannuation for housing purposes?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For that to be an issue, the government would actually have to have a proposal along those lines. We have no such proposal along the lines that the shadow Treasurer has referred to. All matters relating to housing affordability will be addressed in the budget, which is a couple of months away. I am reminded of the policy of the Labor Party, because the only people that I am aware of who have ever taken this policy to an election are members of the Labor Party. In 1993 Paul Keating, as Prime Minister, said this in the policy platform 'Superannuation and homes':

… recognising that income and housing are equally required for a secure and comfortable retirement, Labor will permit part of the deposit on owner occupied dwellings to be funded from the home buyer's superannuation account;

So, the only party that have put that forward in a formal sense to an election are the Labor Party. We know they did not go ahead with that, so the lesson from that episode is you can never trust the Labor Party on anything—then or now.