David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I fear this motion is indicative of part of what is wrong with politics in Australia. The crossbench has been calling on the Albanese government for the last 18 months to redesign these tax cuts. And I applaud the Albanese government for, in a cost-of-living crisis, putting more money into the pockets of people who need it. Scott Morrison, at the 2019 election, was talking about paying down the debt so as not to burden future generations. When COVID hit, the coalition government spent money to keep people alive, to keep people above the poverty line, to keep our economy going. People understand that they want a government that is going to govern.

What we're seeing now is this hysteria around things like negative gearing and capital gains tax. What I'm hearing from people I represent is that they hope that politicians will now actually move on to talking about these things, and maybe get on with changing this system that treats housing as an investment vehicle over something that people in our communities should afford. From the outside, it must seem strange that these politicians—who, on average, own more investment properties than the average Australian—are trying to entrench a system which means that young people are locked out of the property market. If you don't have the bank of mum and dad, you're out of luck. Surely that's not the kind of Australia we want going forward.

It shouldn't matter whether or not you're born into a wealthy family. You should be able to afford to pay the rent and do meaningful work in our communities. We're not going to get there unless we're willing to have the debate and make some changes to things like capital gains tax discount and negative gearing.