Yes, it's a shambolic shamozzle. And like trying to walk both sides of the street and without offending too many.

For mine, It should be done with far less convoluted complexity and the taxpayer no longer asked to (privatise the profits, socialize the losses) subsidise the incomes of the better off.

Negative gearing should remain as should capital gains relief, but applicable only to new, never before lived in, housing.

Other tax breaks connected to real estate development should only come from a regional tax system that allows zonal offsets for regional and rural business development.

Consequently, allowing underutilized infrastructure to be more fully utilized. Thereby creating new jobs where housing is vastly more affordable, all while taking the strain off already overloaded capital city infrastructure!

Finally, the endlessly delayed rapid rail needs to be rolled out, even if done off budget and paid for with government guaranteed self-terminating thirty-year bonds, which, if given tax-free status?

Likely to be oversubscribed by those investors just looking for safe secure reliable non real estate retirement funding options, ditto the big super funds both here and abroad.

Real tax reform also needs to be accompanied by a rational energy policy (MSR thorium) that encourages regional development rather than now, stifle it!
Alan B.

Excellent article.

Labor winning the May 18, 2019 Election [1] will be a good thing in itself by stirring up more debates on OLO.

However Labor (like all Parties returned to government after years in the wilderness) will be very careful not to enact unpopular tax and other measures that would put it out of office in the following (2022) Election.

Remebering Labor's Whitlam Government, with all its over-confident financial-social changes, only lasted 3 years in office.

This means what Labor is saying it will do when it wins office WON'T be attempted and so won't actually happen.

Also Labor's large rich Sydney-Melbourne 2019 swinging voter base will actually welcome a return to increases in flagging housing prices. Meanwhile "poor" renters are assumed to be locked in Labor voters who can be taken for granted.

Parties, have for years said they'll abolish negative gearing [2] but they never do.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Australian_federal_election

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_gearing#Australia

Pete

The politics of envy are never far from the thoughts of the likes of Shorten

Once again Labor displays its staggering economic incompetence.