Malcolm Turnbull says Labor’s negative gearing changes will make every home “worth less” as he described Bill Shorten’s policy as ill-thought out and dangerous.
But Labor says the Prime Minister is parroting the attack lines of his predecessor and have branded it his “Tony Abbott moment”.
Mr Turnbull said every homeowner should fear a Labor government because it would “smash the residential housing market”.
Mr Shorten last weekend promised to restrict negative gearing from July next year to investments in new homes, removing the tax break from investments in established homes. The policy would not affect existing arrangements.
“It has been very, very poorly thought out. The consequence of it will be a decline in property prices,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Every homeowner in Australia has a lot to fear from Bill Shorten.”
The government has not ruled out changing negative gearing but Mr Turnbull said Labor’s plan would cause harm.” You need to apply great care and great attention. You need to use a scalpel, if you like, rather than an axe.”
“And what Bill Shorten has done, he has set out to smash the residential housing market. Just think about this, think about a typical auction in Sydney or Melbourne. Think of all, someone selling their house, they’re doing that and there are a group of people, there are homebuyers, there are young homebuyers, there are older homebuyers. And there’s plenty of investors.”
“Bill Shorten will take them all out. What will that do? That will lower the price of property. So, if you are sitting now in your home with a mortgage, and you have got some equity between the value of the home and the mortgage, Bill Shorten is going to gnaw away at that equity. His policies will make your home worth less.”
Mr Turnbull said a serious decline in housing values would put the brakes on consumption and the brakes on the economy. “Bill Shorten’s approach is very blunt, is very crude, it’s totally political and it will have a very negative impact on housing values and on the economy overall.”
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said Mr Turnbull had no tax or economic plan and was “parroting Tony Abbott’s scare campaign slogans”.
In June last year Mr Abbott said Mr Shorten “wants your house to be worth less”.
Mr Bowen said Mr Turnbull’s comments “will forever go down as the moment Malcolm channelled his inner Abbott”.
“And then of course, he wouldn’t rule out doing something on negative gearing anyway. No tax plan or policy, just waffle with slogans. After two and a half years of Government, over five months as Prime Minister, the best Malcolm Turnbull can offer is a weak scare campaign slogan on Opposition policy.”
Mr Bowen said Labor was not afraid to make tough calls on policies such as negative gearing.
The Australian