Explosive NSW Treasury advice – released under Freedom of Information – shows Scott Morrison was himself considering reforms to negative gearing.
 
The October 2015 advice shows the hypocrisy of the Liberals’ scare campaign on Labor’s housing policies.
 
The released documents state:
 
The Commonwealth Treasurer has indicated that all options needs to be considered, including superannuation, capital gains tax and negative gearing.
 
In early 2016, then Treasurer Mr Morrison noted there were “excesses” in the negative gearing framework which was reflected in the official advice.
 
Tax exemptions and concessions significantly reduce the efficiency of the personal income tax base, and are very costly. These include negative gearing, capital gains, superannuation and negative gearing in particular…even partially addressing these exemptions would raise additional revenue and improve the efficiency of the tax system.
 
Despite this recognition of the need to reform tax loopholes for the wealthy, Mr Morrison has waged a hysterical scare campaign after Labor took the lead on the issue.
 
For three years now, Mr Morrison has peddled lies and the junk “analysis” from vested interests in response to Labor’s sensible and necessary changes to negative gearing.
 
Now, on the eve of the election, he has strong-armed his state Liberal colleagues into writing to Bill Shorten with feigned concern about the policy.
 
These Liberal state Treasurers know house prices have fallen under a Federal Liberal Government.
 
They know it was the Federal Liberals’ changes to APRA’s macroprudential regulations that have impacted the housing market.
 
They know that the expert advice, including the Treasury’s, is that Labor’s policy will have a negligible impact on house prices.
 
Reform to negative gearing is supported by the Government’s own Financial System Inquiry, the IMF, OECD, Grattan Institute, ACOSS, the Committee for Economic Development in Australia (CEDA) and Saul Eslake, to name a few.
 
Under Labor, anyone currently negatively gearing won’t be affected.
 
And because Labor will retain negative gearing for new properties, housing supply will continue to increase.
 
Scott Morrison only stands up for vested interests and the top end of town.
 
If you want to get rid of tax loopholes for the rich – vote Labor.
If you want a fair go for all Australians - vote Labor.