The federal government needs to pluck up the courage and do something meaningful to curb Australia's soaring house prices, one of its backbenchers says.
Outspoken Liberal MP John Alexander has put forward a number of ideas, including letting young people access their superannuation.
"The sportsman in me says, 'No guts, no glory'," he told ABC TV on Monday.
"It's time to have some courage. It's time to put ideas and plans and vision forward."
Australia, of all countries, should be able to lead the world in the area but politics was interfering with policy development, Mr Alexander suggested.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has promised to make housing affordability a key issue in his second budget - but it won't be centred on cash handouts.
He says the Victorian government has had a "good crack" at trying to ease housing affordability pressures, but he still believes supply is the key issue.
The state's housing package announced on the weekend includes scrapping stamp duty for home purchases under $600,000, taxing vacant housing stock and a shared ownership plan with the government so buyers don't need as big a deposit.
"Good on them for having a good crack at this," Mr Morrison told Ray Hadley on 2GB radio on Monday.
"But at the end of the day, if that just means people just bid up more at the auction because they can borrow more because they don't have to pay stamp duty then obviously that will take prices in one direction ... without addressing the supply issues."
There was a great risk of developers and vendors being the only beneficiary of the Victorian move, and that's why the federal government abolished first home owners grants some time ago.
"You have got to get more houses built," Mr Morrison said.
And not just on the fringes of cities, but right across the board.
Australia has an older generation looking for a certain type of accommodation and low-income earners struggling to pay their rent, the treasurer said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull agreed, saying there's a need to free up zoning and planning to get more dwellings approved, especially around transport infrastructure such as railway stations.
"It is a big challenge, but it is one that we are absolutely focused on," he told reporters in Melbourne.
Labor mocked the treasurer's latest thoughts, labelling him as "Scott Morrison 10.0", who has had "more versions than iTunes".
"He keeps on rebooting himself desperately hoping he can come up with something to provide traction," shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh told Sky News.
The treasurer talked about home ownership but had ruled out changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
They were issues most economists say inflate the housing market by tilting the hand towards investors and away from first home owners, Dr Leigh said.
Asked on 3AW radio what would be in the federal budget for housing affordability, Mr Turnbull flagged using the government's "cities agenda" to tie funding to opening up more land for housing development.
"What we are doing as we set up our city deals ... is reach agreement so that as commonwealth funding is made available for road or rail or whatever that is then part of a deal and a commitment to deliver, for example, more dwelling approvals," Mr Turnbull said.
He said housing approvals had been "very slow".
