Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Productivity Commission has found that the government's intervention in the housing sector delivers a windfall gain for banks. Up to half of this gain is paid for by taxpayers, as interest on investment loans is tax deductible. Therefore, Prime Minister, by refusing to reform negative gearing, isn't the government giving banks an annual bonus of half a billion dollars of taxpayers' money? When will the Prime Minister put people ahead of the big banks?

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

The parliament has just passed the Banking Executive Accountability Regime, which is holding banking executives to account—an initiative of this government. Labor never did it. And, of course, we've imposed a major bank levy, which has made an important contribution to bringing the budget back into balance.

Let me start with what the honourable member said about negative gearing. When Labor first proposed their utterly unfair and discriminatory ban on people earning wages, salaries or professional income from offsetting that against net rental or business losses, they said this was all about bringing down the price of housing, which was too high. That is what they said it was all about. Now they say it wouldn't affect the price of housing at all.

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

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

He says, 'No, they don't.' They do. Only one per cent, I think, they said—barely a ripple, they are proposing. What the Labor Party is proposing in its ban on negative gearing is the most ill-thought-out tax grab you can imagine.

For our part, we have no doubt that it would hit the housing market with a sledgehammer, with very, very negative consequences. But let's leave opinions on the value of real estate to one side. Let's look at how Labor discriminate against the very people they claim to represent. More than two-thirds of the people who file negative gearing claims are middle-income Australians: nurses, teachers and policemen.

Opposition members interjecting—

You can hear the Labor Party sneering about it—scoffing and scorning. That is where most of the negative gearing claims are made. And who, under Labor's plan, will be able to continue to offset net business losses? Who will be able to continue negative gearing? Not the wage earner, not the salary earner, not the professional person—no policemen, no teachers. Who will be doing it? Wealthy people with large investment incomes. So, the very people Labor claims to champion they are abandoning, and the people they claim to be taking on are the ones who will benefit from the market, from the greater opportunities afforded by yet another ill-thought Labor policy. They're such hopeless generals they can't even manage a class war. (Time expired)

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McEwen will find it hard to stay in the chamber if he keeps interjecting. I refer him to his several warnings yesterday.