Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This is why Labor comes up with these sorts of thought bubbles about negative gearing, capital gains tax, superannuation taxes and so on. There are 383,000 Australians earning less than $37,000 a year who have negatively geared properties. They are using that in a number of cases to get into the market, to get those investment loans, when they may not be able to get a home loan for a particular market. The overwhelming response is not to close down negative gearing, as Labor wants to do; the overwhelming response is to give people the opportunity to get employment and, at the same time, to create more supply in the market. That is the fundamental response and I have been saying it for years. We need more supply in the housing market in Australia and under the coalition the builders of Australia are building and building but we want more, to give more people an opportunity.

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