Federal election 2016: David Feeney ’fesses up over unregistered $2.3m house

Labor frontbencher David Feeney admits he failed to declare a home in his electorate that was also negatively geared.

David Feeney. Picture: Hollie Adams

Labor frontbencher David Feeney has admitted to an “omission” over a $2.3 million home in his Melbourne electorate which he negatively gears after he failed to declare the asset on parliament’s register for more than two years.

In a setback for Labor in the political fight over personal wealth and transparency, Mr Feeney ­acknowledged last night that he should have disclosed the investment after buying it with his wife in December 2013.

He also confirmed to The ­Australian the house was negatively geared, the practice Labor wants to curb in order to generate $32.1 ­billion in additional tax ­revenue over the coming ­decade.

“The fact that my wife and I purchased a home in Northcote in 2013 is not a secret … it’s on the public record. “There is no conflict of interest in my wife and I owning a home in Northcote,” he said.

The $2.3 million property owned by David Feeney and his wife.

Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt seized on the ­admission. “If these reports are correct, it seems David Feeney has been caught red-handed breaking the rules,” he said. “Mr Feeney has questions to answer and so does Bill Shorten.”

Mr Feeney’s seat of Batman is one of several the Greens hope to win at the July 2 election.

He has joined fellow Labor MPs in speaking out against negative gearing, saying the top 20 per cent of ­income earners get 70 per cent of the benefits from the tax concessions. He has called the practice a “scheme for rich ­investors that reduces housing ­affordability” and cited reports claiming the rules cost ordinary taxpayers $310 a year by giving tax breaks to investors.

The disclosure late yesterday damages Labor’s efforts to ­challenge Malcolm Turnbull over his investments, while also putting obstacles in the way of any Labor attack on Coalition MPs for failing to reveal their assets.

Mr Shorten took aim at Mr Turnbull last week when he was named in the Panama Papers.

Mr Feeney is unable to update the register because parliament has been dissolved, which means he is likely to be in breach of the rules until after the election.

“It will be declared on my next register of interests if I am re-­elected,” he said.

Mr Feeney and his wife, lawyer Liberty Sanger, have rented out the property while seeking to renovate it with the intention of moving into it later. His register of interests, lodged on December 5, 2013, records his residential property in East Melbourne and an investment property in Seddon but no other properties. It was updated in April 2015 and August 2015.