Leaders’ debate live: Albanese ‘optimistic’ about nation’s future as Dutton says households facing ‘existential’ cost-of-living crisis

Prime minister and Coalition leader face off in showdown hosted by ABC. Follow live updates

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Will major parties housing policies reduce prices?

The first question is on housing, with each leader asked if their plan would make housing any more affordable in five or ten years, or simply push prices higher?

We need to do both. We need to particularly give young people a fair crack … The key is supply. That’s why only Labor is offering a plan at this election to increase supply of housing.

That is on the supply side a very significant benefit. The second part is we reduce migration by 25%, so that we can allow the housing stock to be built up again and by doing that – as well as stopping foreigners for two years from purchasing Australian homes – we give young Australians a go.

We have inflation that is down, real wages that are up. We have unemployment that is very low at just 4.1% and interest rates have started to fall – they started to rise before the last election. But we know there is much more to do …

We know we live in difficult times. I am very confident that with the right leadership we can see it through.

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