Bill Shorten, Peter Dutton trade blows on negative gearing as pressure mounts on government

Bill Shorten and Peter Dutton have traded blows over a key tax benefit for property owners that continues to be questioned.

Federal minister Bill Shorten and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have traded blows over a key tax benefit for property owners that the former Labor leader once championed a push to reform.

Mr Shorten, who is retiring from politics early next year, took negative gearing reforms to the federal elections in 2016 and 2019 in his failed prime ministerial bids.

But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s comments this week that the government had “no plans” to change the concession has sparked speculation the Shorten-era policy could still be on the table.

Appearing on Nine’s Today alongside Mr Dutton on Friday, Mr Shorten said the Prime Minister “has been crystal clear” on the government’s position.

“It’s not Labor’s policy,” he said.

“We would like the Liberals to stop swinging. We’d like Peter Dutton, in fact, to stop swinging hands with (Greens leader) Adam Bant, delaying our housing policy to allow people to be able to buy into the housing market.

“It’s all about supply, not about the tax policies.”

Federal minister Bill Shorten and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have traded blows on negative gearing during a joint morning show appearance.

But Mr Dutton shot back that different takes on Mr Albanese’s comments by the media showed the government was “in a state of disarray.”

“And I suspect the secret action here is actually from Bill Shorten,” the Opposition Leader said.

“I think Billy has … slipped the policy under the Prime Minister’s door, and the PM has woken up, and he’s brushed it off.

“And he thought Bill was hopeless in 2019 and he could pull it off.”

Mr Shorten quipped back: “Pete, I think last night you heard a noise in the garden, and you went out to check and it was Adam Bandt and the other pixies at the end of the garden giving you advice on housing.”

Picking up on the fuzziness of Mr Albanese’s comments, host Karl Stefanovic asked the former Labor leader to if he “has spoken to the PM about the plan to have no plan”.

Mr Shorten said he had not and repeated that the government’s “focus is on supply”.

He went on to take another dig at Mr Dutton.

“This is the problem with the modern day Dutton opposition,” he said.

“They won’t leave, they won’t follow, and they won’t get out the way. Stop taking advice from the Greens.”

Both the government’s Help to Buy and Build to Rent bills failed to get through the Senate last week, with the Coalition firmly against the legislation and the Greens saying the bills do not go far enough.

Independent senator David Pocock is the latest member of the crossbench to throw his support behind negative gearing changes. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Among the Greens’ demands is a phase out of negative gearing, which lets property owners offset losses on rental properties.

But reforms appear to be gaining momentum, with growing support for negative gearing reform on the crossbench and reports ministers think it could play well with younger voters.

Independent senator David Pocock is the latest member of the crossbench to throw his support behind negative gearing changes, saying on Friday he backed a “sensible middle path to reform”.

Senator Pocock told the ABC there needed to be a shift away from viewing housing as an “investment vehicle”.

“Housing, it is dire, particularly if you’re a young person or a more marginalised group,” Senator Pocock told the ABC.

“That’s not the Australia I think we want to be living in.”

He said limiting investment properties to one per person seemed “pretty fair”, pointing to small business owners who needed to take care of their own retirement.

“That seems legitimate,” he said.

“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.”

Originally published as Bill Shorten, Peter Dutton trade blows on negative gearing as pressure mounts on government