A tweet posted by member for Farrer Sussan Ley five years ago criticising the notion of young people drawing from their superannuation to invest in their first homes has come back to haunt the environment minister.
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The social media furore which erupted came after Prime Minister Scott Morrison argued during his Brisbane campaign launch that young people should have the right to invest $50,000 or 40 per cent of their super, whichever is lower, to break into the property market.
On April 12, 2017, Mrs Ley tweeted: "Young people need their super for retirement, not to try to take pressure off an urban housing bubble, better solved by decentralisation."
As the tweet resurfaced, it drew sceptical responses from hundreds of Twitter users, many asking whether Ms Ley would change her position on the issue after Mr Morrison's announcement.
Ms Ley said she stood by Mr Morrison's approach to the issue and said it was different to previous proposals.
"This is a targeted approach for a very real and current day issue facing many young people," Ms Ley said. "It is also very different from previous proposals.
"The government's policy really can help you get into a home now, with the invested amount to be returned to the superannuation fund later.
"So, there are both benefits as you head towards retirement, and if the house is sold a likely capital gain for every person taking up the offer."
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Albury councillor Darren Cameron, who is running as a candidate for Farrer, said the matter "spoke for itself" and that Ms Ley was very clear in 2017 that she was opposed to the idea of accessing superannuation for housing.
"Now she's had a road to Damascus conversion, it seems, like the rest of the Liberal Party," Mr Cameron said.
"Suddenly the Liberal Party wants you to believe that they're the friends of working people and poor people. It's absolute nonsense."
Mr Cameron said young people had already accessed their superannuation and been allowed to "raid their superannuation for two lots of $10,000 during COVID".
"Many young people don't have any superannuation to speak of at all and if they are to use what remains or what they accumulate in the next few years for a house deposit, two things will happen," he said.
"One is, when they're older, they will have very little or no superannuation because the earnings potential comes towards that money.
"The second thing that will happen is that an already hyper-inflated housing market, particularly here in Albury, will go even higher and get further out of access.
"They'll be spending their entire superannuation to try and get into an ordinary home."
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