Morrison says he won’t to anything ‘crazy’ with housing investment taxes

TREASURER Scott Morrison has sent a message to Australians who are worried about sweeping changes to housing investment benefits.

QT

SCOTT Morrison today moved to calm government backbench unrest by labelling himself a “keen defender” of negative gearing.

The Treasurer confirmed changes to negative gearing remained on the government’s table of tax options.

But he had a mollifying message for backbenchers warning him and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull against touching the existing system.

Mr Morrison said he would not do anything crazy with the investor tax concessions and was “being very careful”.

And he also had a message for anyone pressing for a stimulus Budget to combat relatively high unemployment, stunted wage growth, and dropping investment.

It won’t happen.

Mr Morrison was speaking on his return from Shanghai and G20 talks, which included the world’s biggest economies.

He touched down to reports of backbench rejection of tampering with housing investment tax concessions.

This followed Labor proposals, which the Opposition said could raise $32 billion in tax concession savings over a decade, and the government’s dumping of the prospect of a rise in the GST.

Mr Morrison told Macquarie Radio he was “a keen defender of those who engage in negative gearing” and was “being very careful”.

Scott Morrison says he is ‘being very careful’ before making any changes to housing investment tax benefits.

And he was clear about what he would not do. He said the Opposition plans would cause havoc in the property market and hurt the value of most people’s major asset, the family home.

“Labor want to increase capital gains tax by 50 per cent, not just on residential property, right across the board,” Mr Morrison said.

“In this environment when things are so tight, the idea of putting a bigger tax on investment … I mean, that’s mad.

“They are also saying they are only going to apply it to new property. The minute you go and buy a new property, you put the key in the door and you turn it, it turns into an old property.

“And one in three investors won’t be able to buy that property.”

Mr Morrison said Australia, Germany and partners in Shanghai argued against calls for stimulus budgets within the G20.

“There were some who were turning up there and saying, ‘Oh, we’ve got to spend a whole lot more money again’,” he said.

“And ourselves and the Germans and a few others went, ‘No, we’ve just got to continue to run our economy sensibly’.

“We have one of the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios of all the countries sitting around that table. And others with debt ratios three times ours were saying they wanted to spend more money.”

Scott Morrison meets International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde during the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bankers meeting in Shanghai on the weekend.