‘Cranky boy’: Albo under fire over negative gearing reforms and capital gains tax concessions

Anthony Albanese has delivered yet another stroppy performance while getting hammered with questions over negative gearing reform.

Anthony Albanese has delivered another stroppy performance while getting hammered with questions over potential negative gearing reforms, telling a radio host, “I’m not the Treasurer.” 

The Prime Minister has revealed he doesn’t know if Jim Chalmers asked the Treasury to consider rewinding negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions for property investors. 

Confirming he certainly hadn’t asked Treasury to do the work, he could not answer if the Treasurer had put in a request.

“I’m not the Treasurer,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio. 

“He’s on a plane. You can ask him yourself.”

Last week, Mr Albanese dismissed questions from ABC host Patricia Karvelas, prompting claims he was a “cranky boy.” 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered another stroppy performance live on air. Picture: Picture: NewsWire / Patrick Gee

“He was a cranky boy this morning ... He was in a real filthy mood,” Stepmates Studios’ Mark Nicholson told Sky News host Caleb Bond. 

The furore has prompted Peter Dutton to warn Australians “can’t trust him” over negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions. 

“Australians have seen this all before,” Mr Dutton said. 

“Anthony Albanese repeatedly told us he wouldn’t touch legislated tax relief, or to tax super or franking credits — but he did. 

“Anthony Albanese has never seen a tax he doesn’t like, and you can’t trust him not to break his word.” 

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather wants to phase out tax handouts for property investors.

Mr Chandler-Mather told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing: “We are willing to negotiate.”

“I would be surprised if Labor would not want to spend that extra revenue but it has been a real struggle to get Labor to spend any money on public housing.,” he said.

“I think that is what has left a lot of people disappointed with this Labor government. Think about what Gough Whitlam could do. Hundreds of thousands of public homes, free university education, real reforms that change people’s lives.”

‘All-out war’: Albo flags new tax scheme

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Albanese faced questions in Tasmania over whether he is considering big reforms to negative gearing, pointedly declining to rule out any future changes.

The Prime Minister was repeatedly asked whether he has tasked public servants with providing options, after reports claimed Labor was “once again looking at tax grabs”.

This was said to include a cap on the number of properties investors can negatively gear and capital gains tax exemptions.

While he stressed changes were not part of the current policy mix and playing down the prospect of reforms, he did not pledge there would be no change.

“I’ve seen those reports and what we do is we value the public service. I’m sure the public service are looking at policy ideas, that’s because we value them,” he said.

“We have our housing policy, it’s out there for all to see … it’s currently being blocked by a ‘No’alition of the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens,” he said.

He refused to confirm whether Treasury has been asked to do any modelling on options.

“I talk about what we are doing, not what we are not doing,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese refused to rule out similar changes in an interview in the last week, setting the hares running that the landlord PM is considering changes to improve housing affordability and fund a big new policy to ease pressures for new homeowners.

Negative gearing policies allow property investors to claim tax deductions for owning and maintaining their investment properties, if those costs exceed the rental income they earn from them.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is reportedly weighing up making changes to negative gearing. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten previously proposed reforms to negative gearing that were later blamed for contributing to him losing the ‘unlosable election’ to Scott Morrison in 2019.

At the 2016 and 2019 elections Labor promised to halve the 50 per cent capital gains tax deduction and limit negative gearing to new properties only, though it was grandfathered.

Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham seized on reports this morning in the Nine newspapers that officials are drawing up options for a big bang housing policy at the next election.

“Here we go again … the Albanese Labor government saying one thing on tax policy but looking at doing another,” Senator Birmingham told Sky News.

“Before the last election there were going to be no changes to stage three tax cuts, no changes to superannuation changes, no tinkering with franking credits, yet they’ve done all of those things.

“Now they’re running the same tricky language, we have no plans, no intentions in relation to negative gearing, yet clearly they are lining up on negative gearing and capital gains tax so these are quite remarkable revelations but quite unsurprising that the Albanese government would be once again looking at tax grabs at a time when they should instead be looking at how to curtail inflation.”

The Albanese government has refused to rule out changes to negative gearing. Picture: iStock

“You need to have the right incentives in your tax policy to ensure that you have investment in the rental market as well and critically, that’s where when Labor previously have toyed with this idea in government and in opposition, ultimately the experts and others have come out and indicated the problem is you will just reduce investment in housing at the very time when you need more investment in housing,” he said.

Nine newspapers report today that Labor is war-gaming secret changes including a cap on the number of properties that investors can claim negative gearing deductions at tax time.

“It’s in the values frame. This is why Albo was reticent about ruling it out the other day. Look at what Albo has said, he has not knocked it on the head,’’ a Labor source said.

“This will give the government something big and positive to talk about, it will be a major talking point in the campaign.”

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has previously argued that in order to “stop pushing up” house prices, Labor must limit negative gearing and capital gains tax handouts, and redirect the saved revenue to public housing.

“Property prices and rents are growing way faster than wages, putting home ownership even further out of reach for millions of people, and we can’t fix this until the government stops handing out billions of dollars in tax concessions to big property investors, Mr Chandler-Mather said.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

But in February, the Prime Minister warned the minor party against partaking in “juvenile” political tactics to block the scheme.

“This shows the Greens hypocrisy … This (scheme) is a way of getting people out of the rental market and into the home ownership market,” Mr Albanese said.

“We won’t be talking with them about (negative gearing). If they want to argue … If they want to block it, that’s a decision for them. They’ll be accountable for it.”

Mr Albanese then said, in February, that the government had no plans to tinker with the investment property tax concessions.

“We have no intention to (touch it),” he said.

A spokesperson for the Treasurer said this morning played down the reports talking about the current policy not including changes to negative gearing.

“Our housing policy is clear. It doesn’t include that change,’’ she said.

“We have a broad and ambitious housing agenda and we could be building more homes if it wasn’t for the divisive politics of the Greens and Coalition.”

Government sources suggested it was “not something we’re proposing” but conceded Treasury regularly undertakes work on a range of policy issues.