Pocock says ‘middle path’ the way forward on negative gearing and capital gains
Independent senator David Pocock urges a “sensible middle path to reform” on negative gearing and capital gains, speaking to ABC RN after changes were seemingly snuffed out by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
His proposal with Jacqui Lambie to “grandfather existing arrangements, and then limit negative gearing to one interest going forward and only have a capital gains tax discount for new builds” would incentivise rather than throttle supply, he says.
“That would save you $15bn-$16bn over the next 10 years,” Pocock says. “That could be directly invested into social affordable housing to deal with more supply, which we desperately need.
“I think there are really sensible ways, ways forward, particularly when you know 70% of Australians who own investment properties only own one.
“We are in a housing crisis, and I’m concerned politicians aren’t quite clocking just how bad this is across the country. We should be talking about tax reform, planning reform, stamp duty, migration. We need to be having a sensible conversation about all of these things and then finding a way forward.”
Key events
Daniel Hurst
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, told the UN security council Australia was calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon. Speaking hours after the Israeli government rejected US-backed international calls for a three-week ceasefire, Wong said:
Hezbollah are terrorists that have not complied with Security Council Resolution 1701, but Lebanese civilians should not pay the price.
De-escalation is urgent, dialogue is needed, and parties must implement this Resolution in full.
Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza. Just as in Gaza, Australia calls for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
Wong made broader comments about “widespread” civilian suffering around the world, including in Sudan, where tens of thousands of people had died and “more than 700,000 children face severe or acute malnutrition”.
She said that civilians in Ukraine continued to suffer “because of Russia’s senseless invasion”. Wong said:
President [Vladimir] Putin’s use of the veto to protect his own illegal actions is the act of a coward.
The UN live stream showed the Russian representative watching and taking notes at this point. Wong added:
Australia was a founding member of the UN. We opposed the veto from the start.
We must reform the Council to meet the challenges of today.
Wong said reforms to the security council should include ensuring “greater permanent and non-permanent representation for Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Asia-Pacific”. She noted that Australia’s longstanding candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN security council for 2029-2030 “reflects our commitment to contribute to international peace and security”.
She said peace was “not a gift” and “never a given” but was “a duty we all share”.
Daniel Hurst
No party must obstruct Middle East peace, Wong says
Continuing her address to the UN security council in New York, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said:
The world demands a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hostages must be released.
Aid must flow. And this humanitarian catastrophe must end.
Yet the only hope to finally break the endless cycle of violence – for a secure, prosperous future for Palestinians and Israelis – s a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.
The international community – including this Security Council – must work together to pave a path to lasting peace.
We cannot wait for the parties to do this themselves; we cannot allow any party to obstruct the prospect of peace.
(Quick analysis: Wong’s rhetorical support for a two-state solution as a long-term way to end the cycle of violence is not new, but it is notable that she has included language against waiting “for the parties” to pave the path to lasting peace “themselves” and that no party must obstruct it.
For months, the government has been swapping notes with other countries about how to build momentum for a two-state solution, and has said recognition of Palestinian statehood need not come at the very end of a peace process. But Australia has not been specific about when it would be ready to take that step.)
Penny Wong tells UN security council: civilians need to be protected
Daniel Hurst
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, is addressing the UN security council in New York now. Australia is not a security council member at present, but is contributing to an open debate on the maintenance of international peace and security.
Wong began by repeating one of her themes of the week – the need to adhere to international humanitarian law to limit suffering in conflict:
War has rules – even when confronting terrorists; even when defending borders.
Civilians need to be protected.
But in conflicts around the world, this is not happening.
Nearly a year ago, Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis – the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust – and Hamas terrorists continue to hold hostages.
In Israel’s response, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed – more than 11,000 children. And more than 300 aid workers since this war began. Gaza is the deadliest place on earth to be an aid worker.
We cannot protect civilians without protecting the aid workers who are delivering food, water and medicine they need to survive.
This week, Australia has convened ministers and humanitarian leaders to pursue a new Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel.
A spokesperson for the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, says government “won’t apologise for returning integrity to the international education system” in reply to the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, yesterday saying international students trying to stay in Australia are “the modern version of boat arrivals”.
The spokesperson said:
It’s unclear what Peter Dutton is criticising. Is it the AAT that he stacked and we are replacing, or the issues with international education that emerged when he was minister and we have made wholesale reform to fix?
Clearly Peter Dutton doesn’t think we should be rejecting fraudulent student visa applications – our government won’t apologise for returning integrity to the international education system.
Bridie Jabour spoke to chief political correspondent Paul Karp about why Australia could be gearing up for another election battle over housing.
You can listen to the Full Story here:
They talk negative gearing – the tax incentive that benefits investors, which has become one of the most controversial policies in Australian politics and is widely viewed to have contributed to Labor losing the 2019 election. This week it seemed the prime minister was open to considering change, if only for the briefest of moments.
Latest search for Samantha Murphy’s body called off
The latest search for the body of missing New South Wales mother Samantha Murphy has failed to turn up anything of interest and has been called off.
State and federal police faced wet conditions on Tuesday as they began a new search in Grenville, south of Ballarat, which wrapped up on Thursday.
The 51-year-old was last seen alive when she went for a run on the morning of 4 February.
You can read more about the search efforts here:
– Australian Associated Press
Dutton says PM ‘desperately hoping’ interest rates will fall
Opposition leader Peter Dutton believes Western Australia will play a crucial role in the election. He told the West Australian:
My judgment is that we’re waiting for the results to come in from WA before we know the outcome of the election this time around.
Dutton suggested that the election date would depend on interest rates:
It depends on whether the prime minister’s waiting to see if interest rates come down.
He’d be desperately hoping that they come down in February of next year and he can go from there.
If he thinks that they’re going to go up, or if there’s no chance of them coming down and if he thinks he’s got a restless backbench, then December 9.
NT conservation group calls for Beetaloo fracking stay
Adam Morton
A Northern Territory conservation group is asking a court to make an immediate order to prevent drilling for gas in the Beetaloo basin, arguing surface water and groundwater should be protected from fracking.
The Environment Centre NT has filed an urgent application to stop Tamboran Resources from drilling at its Shenandoah South fracking project, where work began last month, while the territory civil and administrative tribunal assesses the case.
Tamboran plans to drill up to 15 fracking wells at four locations. The centre argues it could damage surface water, groundwater and water-dependent ecosystems. Tamboran has said it was confident it would not have a significant impact.
The environment centre’s executive director, Dr Kirsty Howey, said:
We live in the territory. This is our home. We are fighting to protect our water from the dangers of fracking.
The NT government signed a supply agreement with Tamboran to supply 40 terajoules of gas a day for at least nine years before the project was approved under territory environment law.
The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has asked a scientific panel to examine whether fracking in the NT would damage water resources. See the details here:
Pocock says housing being treated as ‘investment vehicle’ rather than ‘human right’
Pockock says:
Housing, it is dire, particularly if you’re a young person or a more marginalised group. You know, women over 55, it is almost impossible to get into housing market unless you have the bank of mum and dad, unless you have wealthy parents. That’s not the Australia I think we want to be living in.
When you actually start to talk about reform, and you say, “Well, what about limiting it to one investment property?”, most people say, “Well, that seems pretty fair.” There are people out there who may not have superannuation. You run a small business, you have an investment property … for your retirement. That seems legitimate.
And I think it is a sensible way to start to turn this ship around where, for so long, housing has been an investment vehicle, a way to build wealth, rather than a human right, something that is actually affordable and accessible to Australians.
More and more people, even people who’ve done well out of property, are realising that this isn’t working for us.
Pocock says ‘middle path’ the way forward on negative gearing and capital gains
Independent senator David Pocock urges a “sensible middle path to reform” on negative gearing and capital gains, speaking to ABC RN after changes were seemingly snuffed out by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
His proposal with Jacqui Lambie to “grandfather existing arrangements, and then limit negative gearing to one interest going forward and only have a capital gains tax discount for new builds” would incentivise rather than throttle supply, he says.
“That would save you $15bn-$16bn over the next 10 years,” Pocock says. “That could be directly invested into social affordable housing to deal with more supply, which we desperately need.
“I think there are really sensible ways, ways forward, particularly when you know 70% of Australians who own investment properties only own one.
“We are in a housing crisis, and I’m concerned politicians aren’t quite clocking just how bad this is across the country. We should be talking about tax reform, planning reform, stamp duty, migration. We need to be having a sensible conversation about all of these things and then finding a way forward.”
Josh Butler
Paths for negative gearing change
Negative gearing reform attempts are viewed by some as an electoral landmine, others as a long overdue change for housing market equity.
During a frenetic 36 hours this week, changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax were mooted, tentatively backed by numerous Labor MPs and then seemingly snuffed out (for now) by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
These two controversial tax settings, respectively, allow property investors to claim the difference between their rental income and their mortgage payments as a deduction, and to reduce the tax an investor pays when they sell a home.
The ensuing scuffle reflected negative gearing’s totemic status in political discourse. But there was little discussion about what might actually be on the table if changes were considered.
You can read some options raised by others, and previously, in Josh Butler’s piece here:
Students challenging visa rulings are new verson of boat arrivals, Dutton claims
Martin Farrer
Peter Dutton has described the rise in the number of international students appealing against the cancellation of their visa with the aim of extending their stay in Australia as the “modern version of the boat arrivals”.
Talking to Ray Hadley on 2GB radio, the opposition leader was asked about a report in the Australian claiming that courts and tribunals were bracing for “tens of thousands of international students to appeal against the refusal or cancellation of their visas amid concerns that foreign visa holders are gaming the system”.
“Many”, the report claimed, are Indian or Chinese nationals.
Dutton:
This is the modern version of the boat arrivals. So people have found a weakness in the system, they are exploiting the weakness, they obviously will be getting advice from lawyers in this space and others who have tested the system and found success, and ultimately have stayed in Australia or they have extended their stay.
The taxpayer’s picking up every dollar of this. For a lot of these people that Andrew Giles and Anthony Albanese have let out of immigration detention, taxpayers are paying for motel accommodation for meals and providing medical support to them as well.
Dutton also claimed that the Labor government had let in “a million people over the last two years and only 300,000 homes being built”. It had lost control of the migration program, he said.
Good morning
Thanks to Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning. I’m Rafqa Touma and I’ll take you through the day’s updates from here. If there is anything you see that you don’t want the blog to miss, shoot it my way on X (formerly Twitter) @At_Raf_
Martin Farrer
On matters economic …
Our economics correspondent Peter Hannam has been looking at the RBA’s financial stability review, as I mentioned at the top of the blog.
Here is his full report:
And here’s that news from China about efforts to kickstart the declining housing market there that has been one of the biggest drags on its economy – and therefore a big potential problem for Australia’s economy.
Martin Farrer
‘We are dying inside’
For migrants on bridging visas like Sukhdeep Kaur and Jaswinder Singh, the need to reapply every three months brings mental torture.
They have been telling Rafqa Touma about the dilemma of having to visit dying parents in India and risk not being allowed back into Australia for three years, or not seeing their parents again.
Jaswinder has just returned to India to see his elderly father leaving Sukhdeep at home where she can only talk on the phone to her mother who has cancer:
We are just breathing. We are not living. We are dying inside.
Read the full report here:
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning, this is Martin Farrer welcoming you to the live blog. We’ve made it to the end of the week and Rafqa Touma will be here to take you towards the finishing line after I’ve flagged up some of the best overnight stories.
Peter Dutton has described the rise in the number of international students appealing against the cancellation of their visa with the aim of extending their stay in Australia as the “modern version of the boat arrivals”. In the same interview, he called for the University of Sydney vice-chancellor, Mark Scott, to resign, saying he would do so if he had “any shred of integrity”. More coming up.
And the slowdown in China was yesterday identified by the Reserve Bank as one of the key external threats to the Australian economy when it released its six-monthly review of financial stability. Our economics correspondent Peter Hannam has been looking at the risk factors after the RBA spelled out what it might take to make mortgage holders unable to repay their debt. But overnight there was some potential change when the government in Beijing announced its second stimulus package of the week, this time aimed at propping up the moribund housing market. More on that too.
Australia’s major supermarkets provide broadly similar products, prices and loyalty programs in an oligopolistic market that may limit competition, the ACCC has found in its interim report on the sector. We will have more reaction coming up.
