In leaked talking points distributed last year, Labor MPs were instructed to say that the government had “no plans to change negative gearing rules”.
However, in recent weeks, Anthony Albanese has been much less definitive. This came to a head last week when the prime minister lashed out at ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas after she asked if he was considering changes to negative gearing.
When Capital Brief asked on Monday whether the prime minister was ruling out any changes, his media team instead sent us transcripts where he tried to deflect away from the topic entirely (at one point saying the government is “not looking at those areas”, and at another dismissing the question as a “nonsense rule-in, rule-out game”).
This government has demonstrated that when it becomes defensive and careful with its language, it could be a signal that it is planning big changes but hasn't yet come clean publicly. Consider the stage three tax cuts earlier this year — the government denied it had any intent to change them until the very last possible moment, and used increasingly tricky language to cover its tracks. Just two days before the overhaul was announced, Capital Brief received a brush-off response from the government that its “position hasn't changed”.
