Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has taken aim at Labor's housing policy, saying first home buyers will have "[Anthony] Albanese at the kitchen table with you, owning part of your home".
Labor has unveiled its key housing policy for the election, offering to help 10,000 households a year buy a house by cutting the price of properties.
Its plan is a "shared-equity" scheme where a Labor government would buy 30 or 40 per cent of the property with the buyer.
That percentage would be owned by the government and could be bought by the home owner over time.
By comparison, the government has already announced its plans to expand its first home buyers and its Family Home Guarantee schemes, where people only need to have a 5 per cent or 2 per cent deposit to avoid lender's mortgage insurance (LMI).
Senator Birmingham criticised Labor's plan, saying it would help fewer people than the Coalition's policy.
"It is helping now, really, to lift the rates of first home ownership, it is delivering outcomes for Australians and, importantly, you get to own your own home," he said.
"You don't have Mr Albanese at the kitchen table with you, owning part of your home with you."
When asked if he thought Labor's idea was bad, Senator Birmingham replied he believed the Coalition's was "a better idea".
He acknowledged that other states and territories were looking into schemes that were similar to Labor's idea, but argued that it showed, if Labor was elected, there could be double-ups between federal and state policies.
Mr Albanese told Sky News the policy was one step towards a whole-of-government approach to housing affordability.
"The great Australian dream of owning your own home, we're in danger of being out of reach for a generation," he said.
"We need to look at ways, constructively, in which we can assist that as well as dealing with homelessness, public housing."
Greens Leader Adam Bandt said he was not satisfied with Labor's idea.
"On the housing affordability front, that solution from Labor today won't even touch the sides," he said.
However, Mr Bandt said the Greens would work with Labor instead of the Coalition to build more affordable houses.
'We want to work with the next government, which will — hopefully — not be a Liberal government, [but] a Labor government, but they will need to be pushed," he said.
