00:00Visiting a hospital to make an education funding announcement for Tasmania.
00:10But it was housing policy that stole the headlines.
00:13I've seen those reports and what we do is we value the public service.
00:18So from time to time I'm sure the public service are looking at policy ideas.
00:22The report in nine newspapers suggests the government's commissioned Treasury to investigate
00:27possible changes to negative gearing policy.
00:30The Prime Minister is being coy.
00:32No, I didn't confirm that.
00:34We've got a housing policy and that's not in it.
00:37A negatively geared property is one where a landlord is paying more on their mortgage
00:41and expenses than they're making in rent.
00:45Landlords can deliberately set up their investment to make this loss because it means they don't
00:49have to pay as much tax.
00:52Negative gearing reform haunts Labor.
00:54Bill Shorten wanted it restricted only to new homes ahead of the 2019 election and lost.
01:01Almost a fifth of taxpaying Australians do it, which means there are a lot of votes in
01:06keeping it.
01:07But five years on, soaring house and rental prices suggest the mood might have shifted.
01:13Poll after poll in the past two years has actually shown really consistent either support
01:18or that people are really open to this change.
01:22The Coalition wants clarity.
01:24There's nothing wrong with the government considering anything, but lying to the Australian
01:28people about whether they're considering it is another issue entirely.
01:32The opposition claims negative gearing changes will take wealth from mum and dad investors
01:37and won't solve the problem.
01:39We don't support a tax on housing that will reduce the supply of housing and increase
01:45the cost of housing.
01:46Labor's having a lot of difficulty getting its housing policies through the Senate, thanks
01:50to pushback from the Greens.
01:52If Labor does pursue negative gearing changes, this is one thing they could agree on.
01:58Greens pressure works and everything is impossible until it's not.
02:01Pressure that will only grow stronger as the election draws nearer.
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