Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Given the Australian Financial Review reports a first home buyer on their own would need to earn about $152,000 a year to afford an average house or unit in Sydney, how can teachers and firefighters expect to buy their first home in Sydney?

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

For any individual it is hard in Sydney. I understand that, I know that, I speak to people at length about that and I have been saying that consistently. It is an expensive city. What is interesting is that the Labor Party want to make it harder. Why? Because the Labor Party has now indicated that they are looking at abolishing negative gearing. They have indicated quite bluntly that they want to get rid of negative gearing. The interesting thing about negative gearing is this. Of the people with a taxable income of less than $80,000 per annum, the people who have a net rental loss, that is they use negative gearing, there are 12,300 emergency services workers; teachers and childcare workers, 61,000 have negatively geared properties; nurses, midwives and aged care workers, 42,000 have negatively geared properties; 7,000 cleaners and housekeepers have negatively geared properties; 83,000 clerical staff; nearly 21,600 in hospitality trades; 1,700 hairdressers—et cetera. It goes on and on. Of the people who are using negative gearing to get into the property market in particular in the tax bracket of less than $20,000, 204,000 people have negatively geared properties.

These are the facts.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. I very clearly asked about first home buyers and how—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume her seat. The Treasurer is relevant and has the call.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to 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.