The Governments so called housing package is a complete joke.
Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison had a chance to reform negative gearing and capital gains and they have failed worse still, this undermines the retirement incomes of young Australians.
The package is a complete sham.The measures in the Budget tinker at the edges but will do nothing to put first home buyers back on to a level playing field with investors or take the heat out of the housing market.
The housing affordability measures announced in the Budget fail the fairness test and dont come close to the Budget centrepiece the Treasurer has been promising for months.
It is a grab-bag of unrelated measures that will not address key drivers of housing unaffordability that are in the Commonwealths control like winding back negative gearing and capital gains tax discount.
There is not a housing expert in the country who thinks the Government should have left unchanged Australias housing tax concessions, the most generous housing tax concessions in the developed world. Yet this is what the Government has done.
Despite many public policy experts warning the Government not to stimulate new demand and open up superannuation for housing deposits, and in Malcolm Turnbulls own words calling it a thoroughly bad idea, the Government has done just that and Labor will oppose this in the Parliament.
This will only serve to undermine retirement incomes and further drive up the price of housing.
Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have walk away from doing anything serious on housing affordability in the Budget he is so out of touch, he doesnt understand what its like for young families not able to buy their own home
Labor welcomes the Governments commitment to introduce a bond aggregator and we will look at some of the other measures the Government has introduced. But none of these measures will account for the damage they are inflicting on first home buyers who now account for just 1 in 8 of every home purchase.
The Government has effectively waved the white flag on housing affordability.
Labor is the only party with a plan to increase affordable housing supply and tackle demand issues associated with the most generous tax concessions in the world.
WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017
