Should Australia allow first home buyers to access their super early in order to fund a property purchase? Both current and former political leaders have spent this week debating the merits of the idea, which has support from the Real Estate Institute of Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey but has been criticised by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, former Treasurer Peter Costello and former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who introduced the nation's super scheme.

The latest housing finance figures for January 2015 released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that first home buyers are at their lowest level for a decade. With moderating housing lending and GDP growth below trend, the current debate on allowing first home buyers access to their superannuation is timely, says REIA President, Neville Sanders. “The proportion of first home buyers, as part of the total owner-occupied housing finance commitments, decreased marginally to 14.2 per cent and is the lowest since May 2004," said Sanders.

Abbott has said the proposal is a “perfectly good and respectable idea.” Earlier this week, Hockey said that Australia needs to make the super system more flexible and suggested that super should be available throughout a person's life due to increasing longevity. The Treasurer's comments have come under fire from superannuation organisations and Keating, who said the purpose of super was to save for retirement and the government should not change the rules to allow some of our retirement savings to be spent decades ahead of retirement. Weighing in on the issue, Cormann said the move would push up house prices for first home buyers.

Turnbull is among the federal MPs who have criticised a proposal to allow Australian to use their superannuation savings to buy a home. "My own view is that would be a thoroughly bad idea," Turnbull said in an address to the Brisbane Club. "It's not what the superannuation system is designed to achieve. 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."

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen also opposes the idea, while financial system inquiry panel member Craig Dunn says super should be used solely to finance retirement.

On Tuesday night, Costello told ABC's 7.30 program that the idea is one the Howard government examined, but decided against. "This Government's going to look at it again; fair enough, things may have changed, but I think they'll come to the same conclusion as we did," Costello said. "If you want it to top up people's retirement, if you want it to save the Government money and it has that dual purpose, then you probably won't allow people to draw down on it for housing."

What do you think of the idea? Please submit your comments below.