Luke is joined by Michael Sukkar, Federal Member for Deakin | Shadow Minister for Social Services, NDIS, Housing and Homelessness, following what’s been described as a surprise success for the First Home Super Saver scheme – which risks creating an awkward showdown for the Albanese government set against using super to help home ownership.

Figures released on request from the tax office show the scheme has quietly built up substantial support, with more than 43,000 people applying to use their super tax concessions towards buying a first home.

In 2019, the ALP announced a plan to wind up the scheme when the FHSS had managed to attract only 2000 users in its first few months of operation. Under the scheme, first-home buyers can save for a property deposit taking advantage of lower tax in super.

The success of the scheme has been achieved against unlikely circumstances, with applicants having to pass a long list of requirements originally set by the Morrison government. Despite these challenges, younger Australians are using their super to fund home plans – in the most recently available annual figures for the 2022 financial year, 12,460 people requested releases under the scheme for a total of $167m.

Mr Sukkar says, “This is yet another Coalition initiative to support home ownership being enthusiastically adopted by Australians. I recall Labor’s howls of opposition when I introduced the scheme, and their promise to abolish it in Government.”

Download this podcast here