Hockey refuses to apologise for 'out of touch' advice to first homebuyers

Treasurer Joe Hockey has refused to apologise for his advice to first home buyers: get a well-paying job to buy a house.

Hockey made the comments during a press conference on Tuesday to announce an ATO investigation into foreign investment breaches in Australia.

"The starting point for a first home buyer is to get a good job that pays good money," Hockey said.

Today the Treasurer was in defense mode, blaming his critics for ‘playing the man’ instead of dealing with the policy at hand.

While Hockey refused to back down from his divisive comments, he conceded it was difficult for first homebuyers to crack the market.

#adviceforjoe I am a lawyer, my partner is a lawyer. We are renting inner city in Brisbane. We cannot afford to buy our first property

— Tom Schafer (@Tschafer9) June 9, 2015

"For a lot of people, a lot of Australians in Sydney and Melbourne, some other parts of Australia, housing is very expensive and I understand that,” Hockey told ABC radio.

“When you're committing so much of your wage to your mortgage it's a big ask, with all the other pressures in life."

Hockey said an increase in housing supply was the best way to solve the problem of affordability.

Social media users are now taking Hockey to task over his comments.

Those on Twitter have started offering the Treasurer some advice of their own, with the now-trending hashtag #adviceforjoe.

@JoeHockey Maybe you should live off the minimum wage for 3 months and see how real people live. Consider a paycut too #adviceforjoe

— Rachel Hunt (@94Rach) June 9, 2015

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) criticised the Treasurer’s comments yesterday, arguing he was completely out of touch with reality.

"Not everyone has the luxury of simply switching to a better paying job. If only it was so easy,” ACOSS said in a statement.

“The reality is there are nearly 800,000 people who can't get a job right now, with five people competing for every available job vacancy.

“Young people and those on low incomes are being locked out of home ownership and the private rental market remains an expensive and insecure place to be.”

It is not the first time the Treasurer has been criticised for his lack of empathy towards the average Australian.

In 2014, Hockey was ridiculed after claiming 'the poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far'.

In case you were wondering, he did finally apologise, but it took him two days.

You can follow Ingrid Fuary-Wagner on Twitter at @ingridFW1