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‘Thoroughly bad idea’: Turnbull defies Hockey

AAP

AAP

Another split has emerged in the senior ranks of the Liberal Party, this time over whether superannuation ought to be used to buy a home.

Last week Treasurer Joe Hockey suggested that first homebuyers should be granted early access to their superannuation to put down a deposit on a home.

But on Wednesday Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull directly contradicted the Treasurer, calling it a “thoroughly bad idea”.

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“It’s not what the superannuation system is designed to achieve,” Mr Turnbull told the Brisbane Club.

“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.”

The comments, which come just a month after a leadership spill motion put Mr Turnbull as the frontrunner to take Tony Abbott’s job, will do little for his reputation as a loose cannon.

Mr Hockey’s “thought bubble” elicited almost universal derision, with even former Coalition treasurer Peter Costello saying the proposal was a bad idea.

However, until Mr Turnbull made his comments, Mr Hockey’s fellow cabinet members had refrained from criticising the proposal.

Tensions between Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott had appeared to ease since the dramas of last month.

On Wednesday, Mr Turnbull jumped to the defence of Mr Abbott over his statement that indigenous communities who lived in remote communities were making a “lifestyle choice”.

Mr Turnbull criticised the media for swooping on the PM “like a pack of forwards onto a bit of loose balls”.

“It’s important to put that issue on the table, talk about it rationally without turning it into a let’s-give-Tony-Abbott-a-belting occasion, as often people like to do,” the Communications Minister said.

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.”

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