Jim Chalmers has conceded he tasked Treasury officials to look at options to scale back negative gearing, saying it was not “unusual” and again leaving the door open to revisiting the reforms.
A case of a political whodunnit emerged this week following reports the government was awaiting departmental modelling about the impact of changes to the tax break and the capital gains tax concessions.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing, the treasurer put the case to bed by confirming he requested the modelling and the department did not act on its own accord.
“It is not unusual at all for governments or for treasurers to get advice on contentious issues which are in the public domain including in the parliament,” Mr Chalmers said.
Labor has spent the past three days fending off speculation it is looking to scale back the tax breaks. By Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was yet to definitively rule it out.
“Just for clarity, what we are doing is what we have before the parliament. So I talk about what we’re doing, not what we’re not doing,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
He twice pivoted questions to focus on the Senate stalemate on the government’s housing policies.
It came a day after Mr Albanese raised doubts about the merits of reforms to the tax breaks, citing work by the Property Council showing less generous tax arrangements would lead to less new housing.
“That’s the issue. We just want to get on with our plan of building more homes,” he said.
Labor’s housing agenda stalled
Legislation to establish a tax incentive to encourage private developers to build apartment complexes with some rent-capped policies and a subsidy scheme for first home buyers are in political limbo.
The Greens have issued several housing-related demands in exchange for their support on those bills, including calls for negative gearing and capital gains tax changes.
About 1.1 million Australians had a negatively geared property in 2020-21, according to Australian Taxation Office data.
Labor took negative gearing reforms from opposition to the 2016 and 2019 federal elections, which it lost.
The man who led the party to those defeats, Bill Shorten, almost accidentally ruled out a policy revival before backtracking during an appearance on morning television alongside now-Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
“I’m absolutely unaware and sure that we’re not taking the policy to the next election, the PM’s already ruled — made it very clear,” Mr Shorten told Nine.
Asked again if he would rule it out, the former leader said he was “very sure” Labor would not be dipping into its 2019 election manifesto for the next campaign, due before May next year.
Mr Dutton said changes to negative gearing would not help Australians into home ownership and would only drive up rents.
