Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is simply too gutless to take on the big corporations and property developers, and, as a result, rents are going up, the cost of living is going up, and renters are being pushed to the brink. Renters and first homebuyers are losing out in auctions to property investors. Every weekend, in every neighbourhood, on nature strips right around the country, hopeful renters tap out as wealthy property investors push prices into the stratosphere, well beyond what people on normal incomes can afford. Property investors win, because they've got one weird trick: they get massive tax handouts from the Labor government. That's right—not only do property investors make eye-watering sums from rental incomes through soaring rents, they also get tax handouts from Labor. That's public money from the government that they get to put in their pockets. Meanwhile, renters are dealing with unlimited rent increases and struggling to save for a first home. When renters try to buy their first home, they're getting outbid by these property investors.

Let me tell you something about this tax trick: it's not available to renters. It's not available to everyday people. It's available to only property investors. Seventy-five per cent of Labor politicians in this place are property investors. Sixty-four per cent of coalition politicians are property investors. They get the tax handouts if they negatively gear. When Labor and the Liberals vote against the Greens to keep negative gearing and capital gains tax handouts—

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