Home ownership answer to Australia’s baby problem, Tim Wilson says

Coalition MP Tim Wilson has claimed boosting home ownership will lead to more babies being born, as the nation grapples with a major report outlining how Australia’s fertility rate is tumbling.

The Intergenerational Report released this week forecast deaths would overtake births by the mid 2060s, with the number of Australians aged 85 and over set to triple.

The trend has spurred talk of another baby bonus, which would encourage couples to have kids with cash incentives.

Mr Wilson, the opposition’s economy spokesman, said on Tuesday that while the Coalition “always … encourage people to form families and have children”, he remained “sceptical”.

“The reality is with the cost of housing continuing to rise, there’s a direct correlation between that and … family formation, and part of the challenge is the government and the Labor Party continues to prioritise superannuation over home ownership, which means people are buying later and at a higher price, which means that Australian families are being kneecapped from the start,” he told ABC’s Radio National.

“I think if you actually make sure that people can afford to buy their own home first, earlier and cheaper, it’s better for family formation.

“Instead, the Labor Party has consistently tried to rig the rules to favour superannuation funds and the scale of investments they hold against young Australians buying a home earlier and cheaper.”

Opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg championed a similar idea, telling the Financial Services Council that Australians should be able to use their super to buy a home because “housing sits at the heart of retirement policy alongside private savings, superannuation and the pension”.

In his address he noted that former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, who introduced compulsory super in 1992, “proposed a policy where $10,000 could be taken from superannuation for a first home deposit”.

Senator Bragg said “we should be clear our objective is home ownership, and it transcends any other”.

However, Angus Taylor pushed back against both of his shadow ministers, insisting that using super to buy a home was “not Coalition policy”.

“Can I also say that superannuation is Australians’ money and it’s not up to union officials to dictate how it should be invested,” the Opposition Leader told reporters.

“We want to see Australians have the choices as to how it’s invested, but this is not Coalition policy.”

Responding to the commentary, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino accused the Coalition of being “anti-super because they’re anti-worker”.