After 25 years of the same housing policies pushing up demand, Australia needs a new approach | Greg Jericho

Peter Dutton said he wanted “to see [house prices] steadily increase” The Liberal party has decided to give a tax break to those lucky enough to be a first home buyer for the first five years of their loan.

The Labor party , meanwhile, will allow first home buyers a 5% deposit.

The ALP is planning to build more homes 100,000 over 8 years , reserved for first buyers.

It is good to see a government realise that building homes is a good investment.

It means when governments approve new coal and gas mines or their extensions, they are not “creating jobs”; they are just taking workers away from building homes and getting them to build mines mines that produce greenhouse gas emissions. We have housing policies that fuel demand and bipartisan policies of mining approval that reduce the supply of workers available to build homes and all the while neither the ALP nor LNP will touch capital gains tax. Excuse my cynicism, but after 25 years of the same policies, it is justified. - Greg Jericho is a Guardian columnist and policy director at the Centre for Future Work .