Paul1405,
You’re determined to to prove your silliness. Apart from a month in a migrant Hostel upon arrival I’ve not had accommodation I did not have to pay for.
Unlike you hanging off your NZ missus’s apron claiming indigenous status !

mhaze- Thanks for your explanation of negative gearing.

From a business minded persons point of view- everything is business and subject to the profit and loss statement (income - expenses = profit) believing that profit should be taxed not income as is true in businesses. They see spending on investments that generate income as either maintenance or improvement. Business people see human resources including themselves as just another investment vehicle. It's not against the law to have this philosophical perspective as long as they obey the law- but it isn't against the law to use a company structure to bring reality more in line with their philosophy. Business people see their investment in infrastructure as contributing to the communities available infrastructure and providing a valuable community service- they obtain a small amount of profit for their effort in maintenance and compliance costs. A few years ago consulting firms started encouraging contractors to work under their own businesses- the tax department created laws stopping contractors from paying tax as businesses unless they did work for more than one client. Tradies are allowed deductions for tools and safety wear. The Australian Taxation system is complex. But in order to understand tax it's probably also important to understand government spending and the logic behind them.

People that are renting see the relationship of the property owner with society differently. I may do a short piece on this later.

The effect of getting rid of negative gearing would be enormous. I'm not a fan of the Property Council, but their take is interesting:

"If negative gearing was to go, so would the capacity to provide work streams to hundreds of thousands of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, gardeners, and other property maintenance people across the country, as owners scale back to providing only the most essential repairs"

Even if landlords kept their properties to rent out, it would be the tenants who suffered more than they do now.

Many landlords choose to carry out most of the basic repairs to their properties themselves, as agents tend to use "their people", and the cost can be prohibitive. Never seen the need to use negative gearing. Now paid off, they give a reasonable return, and capital gains is the big win, but only if you are selling.

"Breaking core promises is always bad, especially when a government is under pressure, as Julia Gillard found out when she trashed her promise that “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”. After breaking his promise to deliver the Coalition’s stage three tax cuts – which he reiterated at least 36 times in two years – Anthony Albanese is keen to convince Australians that the move is “the best way forward’’.

The 1.1 million households, which already pay a disproportionate share of the tax burden and will be worse off because of Labor taking back tax cuts legislated by the Coalition, will see the move for what it is – a tax grab at their expense. Instead of returning these workers’ hard-earned extra earnings that have been skimmed off by bracket creep in recent years, the government is redistributing them."

"The Labor caucus unanimously endorsed the rewriting of the tax package at a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon despite the grave concerns of some MPs that the government would be punished for breaking its election commitment, with one branding the decision as “election-losing”.