Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister: The Prime Minister and the Treasurer both claimed that Labor's reforms to negative gearing would be like a sledgehammer to property prices. Why were the Prime Minister and Treasurer claiming one thing publicly while receiving different Treasury advice behind closed doors? Why is it that the government's only answer to Australians struggling to buy their first home is to mislead them about policies that will actually help them?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity to answer this question. House price growth in Sydney has fallen from 17 per cent per year to down to less than three per cent in the last 12 months. That followed the targeted, calibrated, interventions by APRA to deal with the overheating that had been caused in the Sydney and Melbourne markets. It was a targeted, tailored intervention that was about ensuring that the hotter investment activity in those markets could be curtailed and we could have a soft landing in the Australian housing market. So, it's gone from 17 per cent down to three per cent. The Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer are now saying that on top of that we should abolish negative gearing and increase the capital gains tax by 50 per cent—on top of that! So, if it's fallen to less than three per cent, how far do you want to see property prices fall in this country and undermine consumer confidence, which is at the highest level in four years?

What the shadow Treasurer has been exposed for through his question today is that this isn't about housing affordability. Abolishing negative gearing isn't about housing affordability. Putting up taxes isn't about housing affordability. It is one big fat tax grab from an envy-driven Labor Party that wants to put its hands in the pockets of every mum and dad investor in this country. That's what the shadow Treasurer is about. He can't find enough tax to keep up with the rampant spending from every single member of that frontbench. If he ever got the opportunity to be Treasurer of this country again, he would see those house prices fall as a result. And I mean they would go backwards—not a soft landing but a crash landing under the shadow Treasurer. That's what he's about.