“We have to do more so we are looking at options. Housing is such a pivotal issue in people’s lives, we have to go bigger but the question is how,” they said.
The 2023 Intergenerational Report showed that between 1976 and 2021, the rate of home ownership among younger Australians has plunged dramatically. Among 25- to 29-year-olds, it has fallen from about 55 per cent to about 35 per cent, while for 30- to 34-year-olds it has fallen from nearly 70 per cent to 50 per cent.
According to the Tax Office, about 1.1 million people had a negatively geared property in 2020-21 which provided a tax benefit of $2.7 billion to those taxpayers.
Albanese played down the call from eight Labor MPs in this masthead for the government to consider a fresh approach to tackle the housing crisis and reiterated his focus was on bolstering supply and pointed out some Liberal MPs had called for the same thing.
“Our plans are out there about supply and my concern with the proposals that have been put forward from time to time about negative gearing is that they won’t have a positive impact on supply, we need more homes,” he told Nine’s Today show on Thursday.
He refused to say if his government was poised to break a promise, given the similarities with the government’s insistence to alter the stage three tax cuts until it changed course at the start of 2024.
“See if you can find someone who says that what we did on income tax was the wrong thing,” he said.
“I know there was some controversy when we did it, but it was the right thing, done for the right reasons and that might be a courageous decision.”
Dutton branded any change to the tax concessions “just a new tax” and promised “we will take a very strong stance against any changes to negative gearing because it will disrupt the housing market, it’ll drive up rents”.
He claimed there was a growing divide between the treasurer and the prime minister “and those two seem to be at war with each other”.
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Chandler-Mather said the Greens’ ideal outcome was for a policy shift in the remaining months of the current parliament “to give hope to the millions of renters and prospective home buyers who, up until now, have thought they could never own a home”.
However, he acknowledged this was a more likely prospect after the next federal election if the Greens secured a share of the balance of power in a hung parliament, while flagging the Queensland election next month could significantly increase the Greens’ presence because of federal inaction.
“The Queensland election could be a powerful warning to Labor about the consequences of ignoring the material concerns of millions of renters,” he said.
