Anthony Albanese rules out negative gearing changes amid fight with the Greens

Anthony Albanese has ruled out any changes to negative gearing amid an internal push to curtail tax breaks for Australians with investment properties.

Anthony Albanese in Melbourne on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Anthony Albanese has ruled out any changes to negative gearing amid an internal push to curtail tax breaks for Australians with investment properties.

The Prime Minister is facing revolt from Labor rank-and-file members to reshape the party’s housing policies, including to restrict negative gearing to one investment property, ahead of the party’s national conference in Brisbane in August.

The push comes as the government faces pressure from the Greens over its signature housing policy, with the minor party threatening to vote against the bill amid concern it will not cover rising demand for housing or help renters.

Mr Albanese attempted to shut down debate on Tuesday and confirmed Labor’s policy on negative gearing had not changed from the policy platform it took to the last election.

“There will be a policy debate at ALP national conference,” Mr Albanese said. “Ho-hum. There are policy debates about everything.”

“The government’s position is very clear and it’s a position for which we received a mandate at the 2022 election and I’m someone who honours the commitments that we made.”

Peter Dutton on Tuesday accused Mr Albanese of hurting “mum and dad” investors and warned the nation’s housing stock would be impacted if Labor fiddled with negative gearing.

“If you don’t have investment properties, renters don’t have accommodation to rent,” the Opposition Leader said.

“For mums and dads who save and, as part of their retirement income, put some money aside and buy a rental property, they rent it out and that’s supplementing their income,” he said.

A vote on Labor’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund – designed to build 30,000 social and affordable houses – has been pushed out until mid-June after the Greens teamed up with the Coalition to block debate in the Senate last week.

The Greens – who hold the balance of power in the upper house after the Coalition refused to back the policy – want Labor to increase its annual housing spend from $500m to $5bn and offer better protections for rents.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said Labor was “feeling the pressure” to take meaningful action to address the housing shortage after the minor party launched a nationwide doorknocking blitz targeting Labor-held electorates in a bid to pressure the government during negotiations over the HAFF.

Mr Chandler-Mather urged Labor to restrict negative gearing to one investment property, revise capital gain tax concessions and offer incentives to states to freeze rent increases.