Treasurer should not be so quick to rule out negative gearing reform: Greens

2016-02-08

Malcolm Turnbull must ignore Scott Morrison's comments and implement negative gearing reform, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Housing Spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said today.

"Negative gearing is an excessively generous scheme whereby low and middle income earners effectively subsidise property investments for the wealthy. More than half of all negatively geared properties in Australia are owned by people in the top 10% of income earners.

"We forgo more than $3.5 billion dollars in revenue every year thanks to negative gearing. That revenue could fund the construction of dwellings to accommodate every person sleeping rough or without adequate shelter.  

"Mr Turnbull needs to stop letting the ultra-conservatives in his party bully him into ruling out reforms they don't like.

The Greens' fact sheet about Negative Gearing can be found here:

http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/sites/default/files/mythbusting_negative_gearing_-_17_june_2015_0.pdf