Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question, but the honourable member should understand that, as I said yesterday, negative gearing or claiming net rental losses against salary wage and salary income is found among all occupations. Indeed, 58,000 teachers claim as negatively geared tax filers. Thirty-nine thousand nurses and midwives and 38,000 retail employees claim. The truth of the matter is that Australians at all levels of income from all occupations seek to deduct net rental losses. The notion that this is a deduction that is only claimed by people with very high incomes is simply wrong.

What the honourable member should reflect upon is this: the surgeons—I notice the honourable members on their front bench are complaining bitterly about surgeons—are more likely to have a substantial investment portfolio than a schoolteacher. That investment portfolio in shares and bonds will give them investment income, and under Labor's brave new world it will be the schoolteacher and the nurse, who have very little or no investment income, who will not be able to deduct a net rental loss against their wage or salaries. But the well-heeled surgeon will be able to offset the net rental loss against the income from his investments.

The reality is this: Labor's policy is so inequitable, not only does it cut away at the value of every home in Australia, not only does it take a third of the buyers out of the ring, but the only buyers that would be left who could claim a net rental loss are those who are so wealthy that they have investment income which can offset the losses. This is a negative gearing policy for the very rich. That is the consequence of the Labor Party's policy. That is the net result of Labor's ineptitude.

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