George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Dear, oh dear, oh dear! Senator Gallagher, I thought the Australian Labor Party might have taken matters a little more seriously on the day after the budget. Yet, after one question to the minister representing the Treasurer, we descend into political vaudeville with your second question, Senator Gallagher. That is how seriously you take the most important day of the parliamentary calendar—that is, the budget.

Senator Gallagher, I am very surprised that a Labor senator would raise the question of housing affordability, because there is one thing we know about your plans in relation to negative gearing, from which I note you are now crab-walking away, is that they would collapse the value of houses and push up the value of rents. That is what your policy in relation to housing affordability is, Senator Gallagher.

As you know, among other things, from the BIS Shrapnel report, with which you were acquainted as early as July of 2015, changing the negative gearing arrangements would take approximately one-third of the demand out of the housing market. What do you think, Senator Gallagher, happens to a market when you remove one-third of the demand from the market? The values of the assets collapse and, correspondingly, rents will go through the roof.