Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the government reforming tax policy to assist Australians to own their home? What support has this policy received?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gellibrand for the question. Indeed, we are reforming the system so that we better allow Australians, all Australians, to have the aspiration to own a home over their own head. This has been something that has been spoken about for some time. The existing housing system is broken, and that is causing enormous frustration for Australians. It has been broken for some time, and that is why our measures in the budget have received such strong support.

Chris Richardson said:

There's a lot to like in this budget.

…   …   …

…what we haven't had is a budget that tackles some of the 'to-do' list that Treasury and the Productivity Commission have had sitting in their top drawers for many years.

CommBank said the big positive was a much more strong, solid, 'credible path back to surplus'. Ross Gittins said:

Much as it pains me to say anything nice about politicians, this is a good budget.

Saul Eslake said the tax reforms announced in the Federal Budget:

represent material improvements to the tax system which we now have: and for that reason are to be welcomed.

In addition to that, people have backed in the tax changes for housing supply. Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, the Chair of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, said having negative gearing available for new builds is pro supply. Harry Triguboff, the head of Meriton, of course, identified positive proposed changes. The Property Council said:

In the short term, the carve-out of new housing supply investment … is vital to attracting capital to new projects …

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear some interjections once again from those opposite, and, indeed, we have had support from the shadow treasurer in the past, criticising the existing system. The member for Canning has said that he feels the anger regularly from young Australians who feel locked out of the housing market. But we were confronted with a situation of acknowledging a problem which is there and deciding whether we would act or not.

There's someone else who was a treasurer, who is here today, who had an opportunity to do something about this, and he said this in his valedictory:

We should be wiser and more consistent on tax concessions.

He went on:

In that framework, negative gearing should be skewed towards new housing so that there is an incentive to add to the housing stock rather than an incentive to speculate on existing property.

That was the former member for North Sydney and the former treasurer of Australia in the last speech that he gave on the floor of this chamber. What we don't do is wait until we were going out the door and then decide to do the right thing. We do it up front.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Three times I have asked the Prime Minister which small businesses will be spared from his broken promises and higher taxes. Three times the Prime Minister has refused to be honest. Prime Minister, what happened to 'my word is my bond'?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Once again, I inform the member asking the question that our budget is reducing a range of taxes and costs for small business in the $3½ billion that we have put forward. The changes to capital gains tax will result in different outcomes for different businesses across a range of systems. What we are doing is replacing one discount with another discount—a discount based upon real gains rather than nominal gains going forward. That is what we are doing.

We are consulting, as we said we would on budget night, including with the Council of Small Business. They have had formal meetings with Treasury. We're continuing to consult on those measures. We said we would do that. That is what we are doing. On Thursday, we'll introduce the legislation that provides for the key measures going forward.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Braddon, I just want to remind the Leader of the Opposition about the language at the end of that question. It was directly reflecting on a member. So I would just remind everyone, to be consistent, that we do not reflect directly on members. It was just the last part of that question.