JEN BECHWATI, HOST: Chris, thank you so much for joining me today. The documents youve seized suggest Labors policy would put downward pressure on prices albeit a modest decline in prices. Why do you think that the Government has not released it?

CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Well good morning Jen. Well the Government has some very serious explaining to do. For two years they have run a scare campaign about Labor's policy, a shrill and ridiculous scare campaign and now we know that they had Treasury advice, Treasury analysis which confirmed everything Labor said about our policies, and contradicted what Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull and senior Cabinet Ministers were saying.

They said it would crash housing prices, it would lead to economic calamity, that it would impact on investment and businesses and partnerships would be affected. All things that Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull personally said and we now know they were sitting on Treasury advice for two years which showed that these were a lie.

Now Scott Morrison is very quick to release alleged Treasury analysis about Labors policies selectively when he sees fit, but he has been sitting on this for two years, they went through and entire election campaign knowing this was untrue so Scott Morrison has some very serious explaining to do today as to why he didn't release this document earlier and to why they kept up this fundamentally dishonest scare campaign.

This goes to Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull's character, Jen.

BECHWATI: When you announced this policy in 2016 house prices were rising across the country except in Perth, there are some suggestions and economists say data suggests that house prices have peaked particularly in areas like Sydney and Melbourne and in fact are dropping. Do you think this is now a more dangerous time to introduce this kind of reform?

BOWEN: No, Ive seen Kelly O'Dwyer try that rather desperate spin this morning. Let me make a few points.

Firstly, this policy achieves a number of aims. It's good for housing affordability, puts first homebuyers on a more level playing field and you set these policies to apply for a range of market conditions over the long term in different places and of course Labors policy was very carefully designed to do that. Now the Government might be prepared to declare mission accomplished on housing affordability, but we are not.

Secondly, this is good for the Budget, returns billions of dollars to the Budget bottom line over the decade and it's good for financial stability. We have a household debt issue in Australia confirmed again in reports this morning which is being fuelled in part by the most generous property tax concessions in the world and so negative gearing must be reformed to ensure the long-term financial stability of our economy. Our policy ticks those three boxes.

BECHWATI: But if house prices are on the decline, would this not have a detrimental impact, these reforms?

BOWEN: Well again Jen, as I said the Government might be prepared to declare mission accomplished but right around Australia not just in Sydney there are young people struggling to get into the housing market still. We need to ensure that our tax policies are well calibrated for the long term. You don't change negative gearing policy very often, it happens every few decades and that will apply in various market conditions and the markets will be different in different States and Territories and economies across the country at any given time. That's always going to be the case but we have the most generous property tax concessions in the world, we have a situation where this Government is prepared to give more taxpayer support to somebody buying their fifth, sixth or seventh property then to somebody trying to buy the first.

We say that was unsustainable two years ago, it's unsustainable today, it will be unsustainable next year, we will fix it if we win the next election but the Government should drop their scare campaign today and adopt Labors policy, that's what they should do.

Putting aside why they didn't release the document, its now time to act. Admit that it was a scare campaign and actually adopt Labors sensible reforms

BECHWATI: You mentioned revenue, this document does show that if you do remove negative gearing you'd perhaps save about $2 billion a year, $3 billion a year and if you reduce the capital gains discount that will be $2 billion a year. Would Labor then adopt an income tax cut with this new revenue if it does in fact introduce these reforms?

BOWEN: Well Jen our policies were costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and those costings are updated every so often and will be updated again before the next election. What we do is make these tough decisions like negative gearing, capital gains tax, family trust reform, managing tax affairs, tough decisions but decisions which are very good for the budget bottom line and then we make separate decisions about how we spend and strike the balance between Budget repair and new initiatives.

Now the Government has a thought bubble about personal income tax cuts, they have announced no personal income tax cuts. They have announced a thought bubble which was a desperate distraction from their political troubles at the end of last year. We on the other hand take a very careful and deliberative approach to our policy development. We will have more to say about our approach before the next election. We have put out more economic policy...

BECHWATI: Is that something that Labor would consider though?

BOWEN: Well we have put out more economic policy than any Opposition in the last three decades and we will continue to do that and our full range of fiscal policies will be thoroughly outlined in the coming weeks and months which will build on the announcements that we have already made about negative gearing, capital gains tax, managing tax affairs, family trusts, all the things that we have done which the Government has not been able to do. They have not shown the courage to do.

We have a very thorough approach to our fiscal policy, we don't engage in the thought bubbles that Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull are addicted to, whether it be State income taxes or personal income tax cuts. Policy on the run that they are absolutely addicted to. We take a very different approach which is thorough, deliberative and we take into account all the latest Budget updates at each opportunity.

BECHWATI: Yeah. Just finally though, questions do still surround a number of Labor MPs citizenship status. One now that is being singled out, that's the member for Longman, Susan Lamb. The Government, well Christopher Pyne the Leader of the House has told The Australian newspaper that if Bill Shorten does not refer her to the High Court and if she does not resign the Government will do so. Will Labor now decide to refer Susan Lamb to the High Court?

BOWEN: Well a few points quickly. We already tried to. We voted, I voted, every Labor MP voted to refer Susan Lamb to the High Court. The Government voted against it. But we also want to see those Liberal MPs with very serious questions to answer referred at the same time. That's only fair. But we dont take advice from

BECHWATI: That mass referral failed Chris.

BOWEN: It did.

BECHWATI: But that was when the numbers were very tight. Now the Government has regained its majority so you really don't have a choice here. If you don't refer her, then the Government will do that.

BOWEN: It says a lot doesn't it, they were prepared to use the numbers, every non-Government member voted for that referral, every Government member voted against it. Now we don't take advice from Mr "The-High-Court-will-so-hold" Malcolm Turnbull who has so thoroughly mismanaged this issue.

Now we are very very confident in Susan Lambs case, I'm not going to go into all the personal details but she clearly took reasonable steps to renounce, she filled in the forms, she sent them off to the British High Commission. She was advised by the British High Commission, the Home Office that they didn't regard her as a British citizen. There was some complexity and confusion about that from the British Government's point of view but she was taking the reasonable steps, completely contrary to Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash and others to who did absolutely nothing about their case. Susan Lamb took reasonable steps.

It's very clear from our point of you but we were happy to have this tested before the Court, we were happy to refer Susan Lamb but we also want to see Julia Banks and those other MPs who have not accounted thoroughly for their citizenship status referred to the High Court at the same time.

I mean this saga has gone on far too long and for Christopher Pyne and the Government to continue to try and score political points for one Labor MP when they have so thoroughly mismanaged the issue themselves just says more about their addiction to cheap political point scoring then getting on with the job of governing the country.

BECHWATI: Chris Bowen, unfortunately we are out of time but thank you so much for joining me today.

BOWEN: Pleasure to talk to you Jen.