Negative gearing and capital gains tax reform to be greens priorities

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Greens leader Adam Bandt says reforms to tax concessions for property investors will be a key negotiation point with labor in the event of a hung parliament. Mr Bandt has outlined a policy to grandfather negative gearing and limit the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount to one investment property.

Transcript

00:00Well, the Greens leader making his pitch to voters at the National Press Club today.

00:07He is arguing to essentially limit negative gearing and the 50% capital gains tax discount

00:14to just one property.

00:16Now, negative gearing effectively allows investors to claim deductions on rental property losses

00:24that they make, while the capital gains tax discount halves the amount of tax

00:29that people pay when they sell an asset.

00:33So, Adam Bandt making the case that these reforms for these tax concessions

00:39should be done in a way that's fair to mum and dad investors, to use his words,

00:45who may own one investment property.

00:48And he says that it will help first home buyers, renters to get into the housing market.

00:54And setting the agenda and what is on the Greens' agenda going into the potential of a hung parliament.

01:03Of course, opinion polls suggest it may be a very tight election result after the election on May 3.

01:12And if there is a prospect or if there is a hung parliament, the Greens setting out its terms for negotiations.

01:18Take a listen to Adam Bandt a little bit earlier.

01:21The reason I think it's such an exciting opportunity and the ability to actually get a lot of these things done

01:26is that there are big shifts happening.

01:30The Prime Minister couldn't convince a third of the country to vote for him last time.

01:34There's less than a third of the country voting for the government.

01:37A bit more than a third voting for the opposition.

01:39Our position is very, very clear.

01:41We'll keep Dutton out and get Labor to act.

01:45And despite the bluff and bluster, like during the course of this parliament,

01:49we have successfully negotiated and passed a huge amount of legislation.

01:56Now, Federal Labor does have history in attempting to address some of these tax breaks.

02:01Of course, in the 2019 election, it took a policy to tweak the negative gearing tax concessions

02:10to grandfather those tax concessions.

02:13Of course, it was unsuccessful in the 2019 election.

02:16And last year, the Treasurer conceded that he had his department model the impacts of changes

02:22to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing.

02:27But we should stress that this is not Labor's policy.

02:30The Prime Minister was asked earlier today about this idea, this prospect

02:36that the Greens leader has put forward, and he dismissed that.

02:42Well, Adam Baird's trying to make himself relevant.

02:45And I don't blame him for that.

02:46That's up to him.

02:48All these minor parties will try to do that.

02:50There's nothing new about the Greens talking themselves up

02:53because sometimes the media follow that up for whatever reason.

02:59And it makes things a bit more interesting.

03:01But the truth is that our objective is to hold on to the 78 seats that we currently hold

03:07and build on it.

03:09So the Prime Minister there insistent that he is aiming for majority government,

03:14though the Greens setting out its agenda, what it wants to see if there was a hung parliament.

03:20Joe, as I say, the prospect of a hung parliament, according to a number of opinion polls,

03:26looks like a likely prospect in the next parliament.

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