Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by Senator Brandis to the question I asked.

Once again, we see a government in absolute chaos. We see a rabble of the government. We see Phil Coorey from the Financial Review exposing the discussions that are taking place within the government to modify capital gains tax, yet this morning we see the Assistant Treasurer out debunking this. One minute they are going to do something about it and the next minute they are not. We had Senator Brandis today saying that they had no intention of changing capital gains tax. Well, what a folly this is. That is because every time a young couple try to buy a house in my home state of New South Wales—and I am sure it is the same in other states around the place—they have to front up against an investor who is getting tax breaks through capital gains tax and negative gearing.

We have said consistently for over a year to get rid of it and level the playing field between young people trying to get into their first home and investors who may have five, six, seven, a dozen or more than a dozen homes. Why should we be subsidising investors to make it hard for young people in this country to get a start and to be able to buy a house? The article in the Financial Review clearly demonstrates that the coalition are at war internally on this issue.