More than 65 per cent of all federal parliamentarians own two or more properties, drawing a stark contrast with the lived experience of millions of voters who rent as key crossbenchers and the Greens push the Albanese government to put negative gearing changes back on the agenda.
In the Senate, where the rules do not require the disclosure of property in a spouse’s name, 47 of the 76 senators own two or more properties, while 30 have declared at least one investment property. Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather, who does not own property, labelled Anthony Albanese a “property investor prime minister” who was “refusing to phase out billions of dollars in property investor tax concessions that are denying millions of renters the chance to buy a home”.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who has cashed in the sizeable property portfolio he amassed with his wife in recent years, has declared owning just his residential farm in Dayboro, north of Brisbane. While Dutton last week ruled out supporting any changes to negative gearing, the issue has been on the radar of other Liberals. Informer NSW Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet called for negative gearing arrangements to be reviewed as part of broader tax reform saying “it could drive supply”.
Another study, published in 2016 by the Grattan Institute which has backed policy reform to the concessions as budget-saving measures, found that abolishing negative gearing and halving the capital gains tax discount to 25 per cent would only lower house prices by about 2 per cent.