Changed position on equity schemes

AT THE height of the global financial crisis Scott Morrison called on the Labor Government to put half a billion dollars into “shared equity mortgages” to assist homeowners, despite now criticising Anthony Albanese for proposing the same measure to help first-time buyers.

In a Sky News interview in 2008, a young Mr Morrison sits next to Labor frontbencher Jason Clare and argues in favour of using public funds to help Australians in mortgage stress at risk of losing their homes.

“We suggested that the (Labor) government take out of that $8 billion they put aside for residential mortgage backed securities, they take $500 million of that, that is already out there and put that into shared equity mortgages,” Mr Morrison said.

“Because shared equity mortgages are a really good opportunity if you do get into mortgage stress, you can reconsolidate your mortgage, you can go on a situation where the bank take effectively a portion of equity in your property and that way you can reduce your payments.”

Though he previously backed the idea, Mr Morrison has this week criticised Mr Albanese for proposing a similar scheme to help low-income earners buy their first home by using government equity.

Asked about his change in stance from 2008 to now at a press conference in Monday, Mr Morrison (pictured) argued he had only ever been in favour of private equity, not a public government-funded scheme.

“Shared equity schemes have been around for a long time and some people choose to do them in at the private sector,” he said. He said during the GFC a “lack of liquidity” in the debt market preventing banks from providing products customers wanted was a “very different set of issues” to the inability of low- and middle-income earners to raise capital to buy their first home.