Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

We do share Senator Bartlett’s concerns that we maximise the extent of housing affordability. The Productivity Commission report was a very good document and a very interesting document, but Senator Bartlett knows full well that the Treasurer did reject the proposals in that report on taxation. One of them was on negative gearing. Of course, we have had an experiment in the abolition of negative gearing. The previous Labor government for a period abolished negative gearing and it resulted in a disaster for those seeking to rent housing. There was a drought in the availability of rental housing as a direct result. As a result, the previous Labor government reintroduced negative gearing for that very reason. So it is a reminder that you have to be very careful when you start fiddling around with the policy settings in this area.