Superannuation: Malcolm Turnbull criticises push to change rules to allow young homebuyers to tap into super savings

Updated

Senior Cabinet Minister Malcolm Turnbull says it would be a "thoroughly bad idea" to allow young people to tap into their superannuation savings to buy their first home.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have flagged making the super system more flexible to help young homebuyers enter the market.

In an address to the Brisbane Club, the Communications Minister joined former treasurers Peter Costello and Paul Keating in criticising the push to make superannuation rules more flexible.

"My own view is that would be a thoroughly bad idea," Mr Turnbull said.

"It's not what the superannuation system is designed to achieve.

"Housing affordability is a big issue in Australia but as we've demonstrated over many studies over many years, this is a supply side problem."

On Tuesday night, former treasurer Mr Costello warned against any changes to superannuation rules.

"This Government's going to look at it again; fair enough, things may have changed, but I think they'll come to the same conclusion as we did," Mr Costello told the ABC's 7.30 program.

"If you want it to top up people's retirement, if you want it to save the Government money and it has that dual purpose, then you probably won't allow people to draw down on it for housing."

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Turnbull again criticised his Government's handling of last year's budget, and warned a new approach would be needed in May.

"We need an evidence-based, spin-free, fair dinkum debate about the budget position and what we should do to fix it," he said.

"In my view the failure to effectively make the case for budget repair was our biggest misstep, because it was a threshold we never crossed."

Topics: federal-parliament, government-and-politics, turnbull-malcolm, superannuation, australia

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