Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, for income, Senator Ludlam! So, if you are going to have deductions from income, where are those deductions going to flow to? Where are their values going to flow to most greatly? It is going to flow to those people that are taxed more greatly. Who is taxed more greatly in this country? High-income earners. That is who is taxed more, so they are going to get more deductions. Of course they are going to. That is how the system works. If the Greens have a different proposal, if they do not want to have a progressive income tax system, if they want a flat income tax system, fine, let's put that on the table. But that is not the system we have.

I also want to finish by saying that I have never seen a workable proposal to change this system. There are proposals going around at the moment that we could somehow quarantine negative gearing to new houses or to new investors. But how does that work? If I build a house and land package now and I get the deduction because this is a new house, then in a year or two's time I want to sell that house to some other person, do they lose the negative gearing? Do they lose the tax deductions? That will never happen. People look forward when they are investing and, because of that, that will affect their investment decisions now, and I, on this side of the chamber, stand for investors in this nation. I think that people who want to invest in our housing, invest in businesses, invest in their future should be supported and should not be denigrated by our parliament, because it is only through that investment in capital that we are going to get the economic growth and returns that will continue to make this a very prosperous country that can provide generous benefits, particularly to those who are homeless.

Debate adjourned.