Greens want to force negative gearing, capital gains tax back on agenda

Negative gearing reforms Labor was modelling last year would be back on the table in the event of a hung parliament as the Greens plan to push for the controversial tax change in exchange for their support.

Greens leader Adam Bandt in a speech on Wednesday will outline the party’s plans to limit negative gearing and the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount to just one investment property and scrap the capital gains tax discount for all other assets.

Greens candidate for Macnamara Sonya Semmens, party leader Adam Bandt and candidate for Wills Samantha Ratnam.

The 2025 federal election campaign has been dominated by the two major parties’ competing plans to offer a small tax cut versus a temporary petrol discount.

Bandt will tell the National Press Club that under the Greens’ plan, which has been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, more than 850,000 people could be helped to buy, rather than rent, a home.

Last year, this masthead revealed the federal government had asked Treasury to undertake modelling work on scaling back the cost of negative gearing, but subsequently walked away from the proposal.

Bandt and the Greens are determined to force the housing tax reforms back to the negotiating table with Labor in the event of a hung parliament.

The Greens leader will argue that over the next 10 years, taxpayers will forgo $176 billion due to the tax breaks given to property investors and that “Albanese and Dutton give more help to someone who owns five homes to buy their sixth than to a renter trying to buy their first”.

The crossbench party has already nominated putting dental care into Medicare, early childhood education reforms, and ending native forest logging as top of the agenda in the event of a hung parliament.

Many polls, including the Resolve Political Monitor published by this masthead, have pointed to the distinct possibility of a hung parliament.

The Greens will warn that failure to act threatens the Australian social contract, but “the Greens will make reforming negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount a priority in the next parliament, including when there’s a minority government”.

“This reform has always been urgent, but the threat of a Trump-fuelled attack on Australian renters and first home buyers in the next few months now makes this a matter of housing life and death,” Bandt will say, according to an advance copy of his speech.

“Renters and first home buyers may get smashed even further in the next few months as wealthy investors, spooked by Trump, leave stocks and shares and pile into property, pushing house prices into the stratosphere.”

The Greens believe that with 7 million renters in Australia and Gen Z and Millennials forming the largest voting bloc at the next election, the time is right for the landmark tax reform.

“With a minority government coming, the third of the country who rent and who are locked out of owning a home will finally get a seat at the table even if they can’t afford a roof over their head,” Bandt will say.

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