Albo dodges negative gearing question

Anthony Albanese has appeared to leave the door open on changing negative gearing tax benefits for people with investment properties following reports Treasury was tasked with producing modelling on potential policy changes.

Asked whether he would rule out negative gearing as an election policy on Wednesday, the Prime Minister appeared to not explicitly rule out future reform.

“What we’re doing is the legislation that we have before the Senate. So I talk about what we’re doing, not what we’re not doing, and what we’re doing is trying to get through that legislation through the Senate,” he said.

Mr Albanese’s comments appeared to conflict with what Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said earlier on Wednesday.

Asked about negative gearing, she said: “It is not our proposal to address or to add negative gearing to that.”

Nine newspapers on Wednesday reported that Treasury had been asked to undertake modelling on potential policy options.

This included options canvassing limiting the number of properties that would use the benefit or only allowing the concession to be applied on new properties.

Speaking to media in Launceston, Mr Albanese said he personally had not requested modelling from Treasury but said it was possible it came from other departments.

“Treasury … like other departments, do a range of proposals, policy ideas. I want a public service that is full of ideas,” he said.

He also reiterated his previous points that Labor was focused on its shared equity Help to Buy scheme and Build to Rent, which gives tax concessions to developers to build rent-only housing.

Both schemes remain blocked in the Senate, where the Greens are refusing support.

However, the minor party says it would be willing to negotiate if the government concedes on its stance on negative gearing and capital gains tax or commits to extra housing.

In 2016 and 2019, Labor unsuccessfully attempted to woo voters with negative gearing and capital gains tax reform, dumping both policies in 2021.

At the time, the Coalition seized on the policy platform and claimed it would be a retiree tax for older Australians.

However, according to recent polling commissioned by Everybody’s Home and undertaken by RedBridge polling group, nearly half (46 per cent) of 2000 respondents supported a policy limiting negative gearing to one property, with one in five respondents opposing the measure.

Negative gearing, in which the cost of owning an investment property outstrips its rental yield, allows someone to deduct the loss from their tax return, with about 1.1m Australians using the tax benefit in the 2021-22 financial year.