Labor has spent the post-budget period artfully dodging a simple question: should house prices rise or fall?
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil drove straight into the debate before the election, bluntly telling youth-focused Triple J that Labor is “not trying to bring down house prices”.
“That may be the view of young people, [but] it’s not [our] view,” O’Neil said in late 2024.
Her colleagues have been more careful since Treasurer Jim Chalmers unveiled his radical overhaul of capital gains tax and negative gearing in a budget designed to rebalance a system that has long favoured existing owners.
