Supply vs demand
Labor’s bills to improve housing supply are still stuck in the Senate as parliament returns. But internal government briefs show growing pressure to address the demand side of the crisis.
When the government finally committed to amending the stage three tax cuts in January, questions immediately arose about whether negative gearing might be the next cab off the rank.
So, when we started hearing whispers in early September that negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount were being discussed by Labor MPs, we took it seriously. Where there’s smoke, there’s often fire. And we put in a formal request for any modelling and question time briefs regarding these landlord tax concessions.
Documents released to us over the past few days, under a freedom of information request we submitted to the government on 9 September, indicate that the conversation was still in its infancy at that point. No modelling had yet been completed.
What we did get back in question time briefs prepared for Treasurer Jim Chalmers in September 2024 were indications that the government was, at the very least, aware of renewed interest in landlord tax concessions and recent modelling from crossbenchers on potential budgetary savings from curbing these rules.
