‘Get government out of the way’ to reduce inflation, says shadow treasurer

Noting the “inflation crisis” in Australia that was “raising the cost of building anything in this country and building houses, building roads”, Taylor said he believed “getting government out of the way where it doesn’t need to be involved is the key to beating inflation”.

The Liberal politician and member for Hume was asked what he thought should be done to ensure borrowers are “able to refinance when they need to and able to access the best deals they can”, to which he responded: “Far and away, the most important thing is to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. Again, this is the great learning from the 70s and 80s; you can muck around with price controls and subsidies and handouts, but at the end of the day, the way to beat high interest rates and inflation (which is what drives serviceability challenges), is to beat interest rates and inflation.”

The shadow treasurer said the way to do this was to “limit government spending, drive productivity, get government out of the way where it doesn’t need to be involved, [and] stop thinking that its government has the answers to all of our problems”.

“I think it’s back to basics, really. This is not a revolutionary agenda that I’m describing; it’s an agenda that we’ve seen work in the past,” he said.

Speaking on the In Focus podcast, Taylor also blasted the government’s proposed shared equity home buying scheme Help to Buy: “We want to see more home ownership by Australians, not more government ownership of homes. It’s pretty simple.

“You know, I’ve long believed that a central part of the Australian aspiration is to own your own home, typically with a backyard or with a bit of space. I mean, some are happy to be in apartments, but generally speaking, Australians have preferred to have a freestanding home. And that’s a hugely important part of the Australian dream.”

Taylor outlined that “a big part of the Australian progression as you grow up and leave uni and get a job or whatever it is, you get a trade, you buy yourself a home and you grow a family”.

“So we want to see more of that,” he said.

“Labor’s answer to that seems to be: The government’s going to own at least part of your home, or the government’s going to build homes and rent them out or the industry super funds are going to build more homes and rent them out to you.

“That’s not the answer. We want to have genuine home ownership.”

Instead, Taylor flagged that the Liberal Party wanted to enable Australians to use “some of [their] superannuation to go into [their] home for first home buyers”. The suggestion was first put forward by the Coalition ahead of the 2022 federal election and has been reaffirmed by the party since.

“The starting point is an incredibly important principle, which is that superannuation is Australians’ money, not the government’s money,” he said.

“Labor, including the Treasury, often talk about superannuation as though it’s their money to be spent on their pet projects. No, this is Australians’ money. They should be free to choose how to invest it.

“It’s there for investment, for a good retirement. And we’ve got to make sure that we give them those options and make those options as broad as possible. But it’s not for the government to tell people how to invest. It’s for them to work that out with a good adviser.

“It’s a bizarre situation, isn’t it, where my self-managed super fund can invest in anybody’s home except my own. It’s just almost weird. But that’s what Labor wants.

“We think owning your home is a crucial part of it.”

You can find out more from Angus Taylor and his thoughts on the state of financial services and what the Liberal Party thinks needs to be done to reduce the burden on advisers and improve housing affordability in the In Focus podcast, here:

[Related: In Focus: Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor on housing, superannuation, and advice]