Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

You cannot deduct that. The reality is: the Labor Party policy does not simply apply to net interest losses; it applies to all net rental losses. That is their document. This will eliminate all investors from the established property market. That naturally will cause prices to fall—how can it not? The market is subdued. We heard yesterday that it is forecast to grow at relatively low rates—and indeed in Perth it is going to decline, so it is estimated.

Into that subdued market environment—an environment most of Australians' net worth where resides—the Labor Party provides this enormous shock: removing a third of the buyers. They are putting Australians' savings at risk. They are putting the values of their homes at risk. At the same time, they then want to pour all of that investment interest into new properties which can only be designed—presumably, entirely contradictorily—to drive those prices up. It is the most ill-conceived, potentially destructive policy ever proposed by any opposition. How could you do something as destructive as that?

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