Albanese Labor Govt Watch

[Jim05]

Tax the churches
Tax mining

Problem solved

[Jimmy_041]

They'd get more support pulling back negative gearing - imagine the properties released to the market if that happens.

I reckon bugger all.
Don’t forget many out in the street are smarter than the clowns that make these rules and will always find loopholes

A quick guide to the politics of housing tax breaks
Tom McIlroy
Canberra Bureau Chief
Sep 25, 2024 – 6.09pm

Faced with a housing crisis, Labor has asked Treasury to model potential changes to tax breaks paid to property investors, including negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

Negative gearing allows property investors to deduct losses from running their rental properties against their personal income. When they sell the property, the same owners benefit from the capital gains tax discount.

When home ownership is considered the Australian dream – and more than 2.3 million taxpayers own an investment property – even talking about a change to the rules risks a political firestorm.

But given the Tax Office says landlords claim more than $48 billion in rental deductions every year, changes to the rules could help the federal budget, contribute to housing supply, and impress voters fed up with the state of the property market.

It won’t be the last government to mull such changes, and it’s certainly not the first. Here is your quick guide to the recent – but so far failed – attempts to reform housing tax breaks.

Bob Hawke and Paul Keating
Negative gearing for investments has been a feature of the Australian taxation system since the 1920s. In 1983, Victorian officials briefly denied real estate investors the ability to deduct some interest related to rental income. The federal government quickly overruled the decision.

Following a tax summit called by Bob Hawke in July 1985, Labor disallowed negative gearing interest expenses for any property purchased after July 17 of that year. The move sparked fierce opposition and was short-lived. The government restored some of the old rules in September 1987.

John Howard and Peter Costello
Part of major changes to the tax system in 2000, the Howard government introduced a 50 per cent capital gains discount for assets held for longer than 12 months before a sale.

The change was introduced after an inquiry that found it would “encourage a greater level of investment, particularly in innovative, high-growth companies”.

Before the capital gains tax change, about 70 per cent of Australian householders owned the home in which they lived and about 25 per cent rented. On the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the percentage of renters has risen to 31 per cent.

Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison
The Coalition considered changes to negative gearing under then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. With treasurer Scott Morrison, he looked at five options from Treasury to wind back negative gearing. The plan also considered moves to reduce the capital gains tax discount to 25 per cent.

Conceding there were “excesses” in negative gearing, Morrison considered either limiting the number of properties that could be negatively geared, or capping the annual deduction, while still enabling Australians to get some advantage.

Eventually, cabinet decided against a proposal to cap negative gearing deductions at $20,000 a year. The policy was designed to raise an estimated $1 billion annually.

As he quit politics in 2015, former Liberal treasurer Joe Hockey advocated for change. He said negative gearing should be “skewed towards new housing so that there is an incentive to add to the housing stock rather than an incentive to speculate on existing property”.

Bill Shorten
Spying an opportunity to differentiate the Labor opposition on the issue of home ownership, Bill Shorten took a promise to the 2016 election to end negative gearing on existing homes and cut capital gains tax concessions. The $32 billion plan was designed to help housing affordability and generate construction activity.

Labor proposed restricting negative gearing to new houses from July 2017, with existing negatively geared investment properties exempted. His policy also included reducing the capital gains tax discount from 50 per cent to 25 per cent.

The Coalition quickly dubbed the policy a “housing tax” and campaigned against Labor on the issue of home ownership.

Turnbull and the Coalition scraped home in the election, while Labor picked up 14 extra lower house seats. Shorten stayed on as opposition leader.

Bill Shorten (again)
Labor took the same policies on negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions to the 2019 election, part of an ambitious policy platform that included a crackdown on franking credits.

The party had a shock loss to Scott Morrison, who had replaced Turnbull as prime minister in August 2018. Shorten said he “misread” the level of anxiety about the scope of the changes and in July 2021, Anthony Albanese’s shadow cabinet officially dropped the policies.

Anthony Albanese
After years of insisting Labor would not touch the generous concessions, the revelations Treasury is preparing advice on scaling back the rules comes amid a Greens blockade on the Albanese government’s housing bills in the Senate.

Housing access and affordability are both set to be major issues in next year’s election fight.

After news of the new modelling emerged, Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers left the door open to changes on Wednesday.

“What our government is considering is fixing housing supply by getting our legislation through the Senate, that’s what we’re considering,” Albanese said.

Chalmers said the government’s housing policy was clear, and it “doesn’t include that change”.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume lashed the government, saying the changes would hurt housing supply and push up rents.

“There’s nothing wrong with the government considering anything,” she said. “But lying to the Australian people about whether they’re considering it is another issue entirely.”

[Jimmy_041]

Tax the churches
Tax mining
Tax unions

Problem solved

[Jim05]

Coalition is no more with the Nats and Libs going their own ways

[dedja]

Coalition is no more with the Nats and Libs going their own ways

Umm, how do they think they’ll win an election now?

[MW]

Coalition is no more with the Nats and Libs going their own ways

Umm, how do they think they’ll win an election now?

Same way they try and do now, minority government for Liberals with National/Teal support

[dedja]

Coalition is no more with the Nats and Libs going their own ways

Umm, how do they think they’ll win an election now?

Same way they try and do now, minority government for Liberals with National/Teal support

Of course, but without a formal agreement, policy will be a clusterfaark, and practically government will be a shambles.

Do they now contest all seats against each other?

It will weaken an already diabolical situation.

I assume the Nats think that this will strengthen their bargaining position.

[MW]

Its only the last part of what you said. Its a bluff by the nationals.

[dedja]

Duttons leaves the scene with quite a legacy …

[stan]

Its only the last part of what you said. Its a bluff by the nationals.

Can't be anything else. It turns them into a bigger shit show than they are now.

It's actually bad for everyone. You need a strong opposition to keep the government to account. Otherwise you have the SA parliament situation.

[Jimmy_041]

Coalition now trying to run a campaign against Division 296

Just shows how bad their campaign really was

[Booney]

Last one out turn the light off.

[RB]

It's probably a fairly logical step right now, particularly for the Nationals, to reassess and reset. I fully expect the coalition to re-form.

The interesting dynamic though is that this is the first time this has happened following the merger of the Liberal and National parties in Queensland. Separate party rooms in Canberra is one thing, but I'm not sure exactly how a dissolution of the coalition is going to work for the LNP MPs.

Further, presumably even if there is an appetite for the Nationals to compete against (sitting) Liberal MPs at the next election (and potentially vice versa), which I highly doubt there will be in three years' time, that would not extend to Queensland. Or would it?

This has also happened less than a year after the LNP has come to power in Queensland.

[shoe boy]

Never fully understood the Coalition with 2 parties with different values and ideals ?

I guess the Liberal party or National party would never govern in their own right.

[rd]

Never fully understood the Coalition with 2 parties with different values and ideals ?

I guess the Liberal party or National party would never govern in their own right.

It now means that the ALP could possibly remain in charge for the rest of my natural life as they have no credible opposition to worry about.

Many more years coming up of Albanese waving his Medicare Card around boring us to tears with stories about his Mother and building up his super balance to a huge figure knowing that he is exempt from having tax applied to his >$3 Million super balance as apparently the Australian voters endorsed these proposed super changes by giving Albanese's party under 35% of the national first preference vote!

[Jimmy_041]

Just had a lunch where I sat between 2 ex Liberal senators - one conservative / the other a moderate
Unusual for me to shut up for 2 hours
Fascinated listening to them disect the election campaign and the current aftermath

[dedja]

Clearly, the Libs need to bring back the fixer …

https://youtu.be/MyCb4_QmuqE?si=uVDcQ9uVrlJ39hxX

[Booney]

Just had a lunch where I sat between 2 ex Liberal senators - one conservative / the other a moderate
Unusual for me to shut up for 2 hours
Fascinated listening to them disect the election campaign and the current aftermath

How is Cory going?

[RB]

Magic button press for the senate in SA should be this afternoon.

[RB]

As expected, Labor wins 3 senate seats, the Liberals 2 and the Greens 1.

So long-time but fairly anonymous SA Liberal senator David Fawcett, who swapped slots on the ticket with Alex Antic this time around, and who I understand participated in the Liberal leadership election (really not sure who he is likely to have voted for), will clear his desk on 30 June and be replaced by a new Labor senator.

This is the first 4:2 left:right split in South Australia.

The other states should all be done by about halfway through next week if past form is any indication. Tasmania, Victoria and WA are of most interest.