His comments have drawn fire from the Opposition.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said Mr Hockey's comments were offensive to middle-income earners.

"That's just an insult to the nurses, the teachers, the people who are working hard, who just are finding it very hard to break into the housing market," Mr Bowen said.

"This is Joe Hockey's 'poor people don't drive cars'moment all over again.

"The Treasurer is completely out of touch, he completely misunderstands the Sydney housing market, and he just can't help himself. He just insults people who are hard workers at every opportunity.

"To say to young Australians in particular who are trying to crack into the housing market that what they should do is get a well paid job is just an insult to those Australians, those younger Australians, who are working hard, saving hard, and all they get from the Treasurer is an insulting lecture."

Labor MP Tim Watts tweeted: "Life must seem pretty easy to Joe Hockey. Can't afford a house? Get a higher paying job! Don't dwell on the highest unemployment rate in 12y".

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said Mr Hockey's prescription was "fantasy land... let-them-eat-cake" kind of stuff.

"His mates might be buying the [houses], the big end of town might be buying them," he said.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-09/joe-hockey-accused-of-insensitivity-over-sydney-house-prices/6532630

However, other comments by the Treasurer on housing affordability are far more worrying from an economic perspective.

Hockey's throwaway remark that "if housing were unaffordable in Sydney, no one would be buying it" makes superficial logical sense, but entirely misses the point economically and socially.

The point long argued by housing affordability advocates is not that no one can afford to buy in large swathes of Australia's capitals, but that a large and growing number of residents can't.

To borrow a friend's analogy, just because some people are buying Lamborghinis doesn't mean they're affordable.

Housing finance figures out from the Bureau of Statistics around the same time the Treasurer was speaking show that, excluding the refinancing of existing loans, investors account for half of all new home lending nationally. In Sydney, that figure is about 60 per cent.

Clearly housing is affordable - for those investors.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-10/janda-its-not-hockeys-job-comment-that-should-worry-us/6535484