Malcolm Turnbull once again ruled out making changes to negative gearing, after renewed calls within his own party for property tax concessions to be wound back. A number of coalition MPs believe it could make housing in Australia more affordable but the Prime Minister says the answer to bringing prices down is - to put more houses up...
For many Australians, the prospect of one day owning their own home gets seems more remote than ever. The median house price nationally is now more than 780 thousand dollars.
Labor's Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen says there's a simple way to bring property prices down and that's by curbing negative gearing.
"It's time for Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull to get the message. Right around the country Australians are worried about how they'll afford to buy a home or their children and grandchildren will afford to buy a home," Bowman says.
Negative gearing allows Australians to reduce their tax by claiming for losses on their investment property.
Labor's long promised to reign in it in to stop investors overcrowding the market, which it says results in higher prices. But despite similar calls for change from within his own party, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull won't budge.
"What we need to do is build more dwellings. There is a tendency for people particularly on the left to overlook the fundamental reality which is, that the reason housing affordability has deteriorated is simply because demand has been exceeding supply. We have not been building enough dwellings," says Australian Prime Minister.
His Treasurer Scott Morrison is seeking advice from officials in the United Kingdom on how to deal with the issue ahead of the May budget. He's also kicked off an early push for support for his company tax cuts. The federal government wants to reduce the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent within the next ten years.
Malcolm Turnbull says if they're blocked from passing the change through parliament, Australia will get left behind and living standards will drop.
"Our standard of living is at risk if we do not remain competitive and innovation is a key part of that, being competitive is a key part of that equation and one of the things we have to be competitive on is business taxes," Turnbull explains.
The UK's planning a 3 per cent cut within three years, down to 17 per cent and Donald Trump wants to take the United States from 35 per cent down to 15 per cent. Canada enjoys a relatively low corporate tax rate already at 15 per cent.
Labor and the Greens have already ruled out their support for the Turnbull government's plans, leaving it up to the Senate crossbench to decide the policy's fate...
