Welcome to the circus

Come learn about Australian politics, stay up to date, and have the news summarised. Shamelessly left wing. Steve Smoth he/him. Auspolchronicle on Redbubble.

[theauspolchronicles]

The vast majority of One Nation MPs quit before the end of their first term. They're either expelled or quit because of internal bickering and dysfunction. Pauline Hanson herself was kicked out of the party and wasn't part of it from 2002 to 2013.

Barnaby Joyce will not be a One Nation MP by the next election. David Farley will likely quit or be expelled by the end of this year.

What's missing from all this media obsession with how much One Nation is rising in the polls because of all the oxygen and hype the media is giving to it is the issue of longevity and stability. One Nation has never been stable. Barely any of its members maintain party allegiance after a year in office. Why aren't journalists bringing that up?

One Nation is not a viable alternative. It's the gutter where those too dysfunctional to be part of real political parties go to see if they can whip up enough racist scaremongering to keep their paycheck at the next election.

It doesn't matter how many seats One Nation wins at the next election. It won't have kept most of them by the time the next election afterwards happens. One Nation is a grift. A con. A trap for the disillusioned and angry who want change but don't realise One Nation is the worst way to make that happen.

[theauspolchronicles]

The negative gearing/capital gains tax changes are really simple and benefit regular people

The media (owned by rich people) are currently going "WOW? SO CONFUSING! BAD LABOR BUDGET BAD! MASSIVE TAX HIKES!" but what actually is happening?

Negative gearing ISN'T being abolished. Literally everyone who already benefited from it on their investment portfolios continues to have it. Anyone complaining and saying they're going to raise the rent because it's made things less profitable for them is lying and a scumbag.

The change is going forward any ADDITIONAL properties an investor wants to get tax breaks on can only be applied to NEW builds, thus encouraging investors to build new properties (instead of buying all the currently existing ones and driving prices up). So who is negatively impacted by this? Literally no one. Who does this benefit? Anyone who wants to live in a house because it increases housing supply and makes the housing market less competitive for investors vs home owners.

Really simple.

What about capital gains tax discount? Basically, in the 90s John Howard made it so that when you sold a house you'd get a 50% discount where half of the profit wasn't taxed. Investors went woohoo! Bought up all the affordable houses to drive prices up and make a big profit. It fueled the housing crisis for the past 30 years. But Labor went "actually, what if we just tax it at 30% instead with no discount?" So instead of half of the money being tax free, it's all taxed. You know... like how making money normally works???

30% is still actually lower than the top two income tax brackets so rich people will still manage to make lots of money without having to work BUT... they'll just have to pay a little tax. BUT only on profit. If a property makes a loss it's not taxed. The amount of tax is also adjusted down relative to inflation so a $100,000 profit isn't taxed $30,000 but actually less depending on how much inflation happened during the time the asset was held.

Also capital gains tax doesn't apply to the home you live in so unless you're a property investor YOU'RE NOT GETTING TAXED! THE VAST MAJORITY OF AUSTRALIANS ARE NOT BEING AFFECTED HERE AND YET WE'RE SEEING WIDE PUBLIC OUTRAGE OVER A TAX DESIGNED TO MAKE THE HOUSING MARKET LESS COMPETITIVE AND THUS EASIER FOR HOME OWNERS TO ENTER IT.

This budget literally mostly just slightly inconveniences the 1% of investors who own a WHOPPING 25% OF INVESTMENT PROPERTIES IN AUSTRALIA.

The capital gains tax discount was never for working Australians! It was never for you! It was always just a tax perk for investors to encourage them to buy up houses away from those who needed them and hike up rents. Labor fixed that.

No wonder the rich media moguls and politicians who make most of their money off property investments like Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor are mad about it and want YOU to be mad too. They don't want to pay taxes! Booo! The problem is: if we can't get the uber-wealthy to pay a little bit of tax then YOU will NEVER own a home!

So the changes are really simple. They're mild. And yet the right is outraged over how it even slightly benefits working and ordinary Australians.

Fucking ridiculous.

[theauspolchronicles]

Angus Taylor has an estimated 9 properties that he hides from scrutiny behind a family trust. He's only clearly declared 2 on his register of interests. He's made more money off property than being an MP and sold a mansion for $6.77 million back in 2016. He has shareholdings in property management companies of over 3,000 hectares.

You know why he wants to reverse Labor's housing reforms? Because they make him pay a little more tax. That's it. He uses his family trust as a loophole to pay less tax - but Labor's new trust tax reforms would make it less profitable for him.

Immigrants aren't causing a supply and demand issue. Angus Taylor and the Coalition just want you to believe that so they can pocket millions in profit off the housing crisis. They're trying to stir up a racist rage to justify giving themselves a tax break.

[theauspolchronicles]

Also, the housing crisis isn't caused by immigrants. We actually need MORE skilled immigrants to work in construction to build what's necessary.

Also a huge amount of healthcare workers are immigrants. Like 40% were born overseas. Most of them trained overseas. It's quicker to have someone move than to go through several years of medical school.

Internationally educated doctors who want to provide Medicare services must spend their first 10 years working in a regional, rural or remote community. If regional areas want easier access to healthcare then THEY RELY ON MIGRANT HEALTHCARE WORKERS. Rural One Nation/Coalition voters are literally voting against their own self interests.

Also areas with more migrants have increased productivity, employment and economic benefits.

If we drastically reduce immigration it'll tank the economy, make housing LESS AFFORDABLE and also people won't have access to healthcare because there'll be a skills shortage.

So even if we pretend the anti-immigration stance isn't racist it's still fucking stupid.

But hey, at least if the Coalition wins Angus Taylor will pay less in tax and you'll see maybe a couple less ethnically diverse people in the street.

[theauspolchronicles]

If you're currently renting and your landlord raises the rent and blames it on Labor then they're lying. Their negative gearing benefits are untouched. The reforms preserve existing investments it's just for someone to get negative gearing on another house it needs to be a new build (to encourage more supply instead of landlords buying up pre-existing houses).

Literally... there's no reason for your landlord to increase rent except greed. They are not being screwed over by these reforms they're just making a fuss over nothing.

These changes help you. They'll make life easier for poor people in the long term. That's why the Coalition hates it.

[theauspolchronicles]

The general public wouldn't give a shit if the media didn't start every headline about tax reforms with "BROKEN PROMISE". The changes to negative gearing/capital gains are minor changes for long term benefit to first home owners and the vast majority of people who exploited the old system are multi-millionaires with several properties. The average Australian only BENEFITS from these reforms and yet the media is trying its best to sacrifice Albo over sensible moderate policy and hide the details behind manufactured outrage because *checks notes* NewsCorp doesn't just own newspapers and media it has interests in real estate. Ah yes. Can't anger the billionaires and mega corporations whose CEOs evade taxes by investing in property and using trusts or you get pilloried.

[theauspolchronicles]

"We need to end mass-migration! We're becoming too crowded!"

Immigration has been declining year after year after a temporary post-COVID spike so there is no "mass-migration" happening at all. It's a normal amount.

Australia's population growth is slowing down to a record low of 1.3% - in part thanks to a decrease in migrant arrivals and increase in migrant departures.

Yeah, migrants aren't causing a population crisis. Even if we disregard all the economic benefits of migrants, how they make up a significant proportion of vital industries like healthcare and construction, then the bare basic maths just demonstrates migrants are not causing a strain on our population.

So why do right wing parties dislike migrants? Simple: they need someone to throw under the bus to distract from how their own policies don't benefit regular Australians and migrants can't vote so they can attack them as much as they like.

Don't be gullible. Don't fall for anti-immigration propaganda.

[theauspolchronicles]

Coalition and One Nation's immigration policy will ruin Australia economically and paints a delusional, false, and subtextually racist idea about immigration.

The idea that migrants are unskilled economic opportunists who come here to take welfare is a lazy lie. Framing them as a drain or a burden is entirely the opposite.

Over 70% of Australia's migrant intake are on skilled visas. Over half of Australia's age care sector workers are migrants. Internationally qualified nurses make up about 20% of the nursing workforce (35% for aged care). We're facing a shortage of healthcare workers in the coming decade - which we literally CANNOT make up the shortfall without skilled visas. They're not taking away jobs from us - we need them to fill vacancies that cannot be filled otherwise.

Over 24% of the construction industry is made up of migrants, meaning a huge amount of the homes built in Australia are because of migrants. Again, there will be a skills shortage if we decrease immigration levels to the radically low amount that the likes of Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson want.

Universities rely on foreign students fees to operate. If the Coalition listens to experts and doesn't cull the much-needed skilled labour visas then the easier option would be to cut down on foreign students, which would cause massive instability and financial damage to universities, cost the economy $55 billion and a loss of jobs and skills.

You may have noticed that during the height of the pandemic when Australia's overseas migration went into the negative that housing did not become cheaper. Migrants aren't causing the housing crisis. They're enriching Australia. They're contributing to the economy, they're building things, they're looking after the sick, they're not just doing vital jobs but creating jobs for the community.

But also: migrants are literally just people! Like everyone else! Not an abstract economic concept. These are real people's lives that are going to be negatively impacted by Coalition/One Nation policy and it's our duty as fellow human beings to stand up for the wellbeing of those who are powerless to protect themselves because they lack voting rights to keep right-wing racists getting into power and harming them.

The anti-immigration rhetoric is not about the economy. Any expert will tell you it's not. It's a racist dogwhistle designed to throw people who can't vote under the bus to win over the support of racist idiots who can vote, but don't bother to do any research into policy. It's lazy. It's cheap. It's damaging.

Fuck the Coalition/One Nation.

[theauspolchronicles]

Angus Taylor has an estimated 9 properties that he hides from scrutiny behind a family trust. He's only clearly declared 2 on his register of interests. He's made more money off property than being an MP and sold a mansion for $6.77 million back in 2016. He has shareholdings in property management companies of over 3,000 hectares.

You know why he wants to reverse Labor's housing reforms? Because they make him pay a little more tax. That's it. He uses his family trust as a loophole to pay less tax - but Labor's new trust tax reforms would make it less profitable for him.

Immigrants aren't causing a supply and demand issue. Angus Taylor and the Coalition just want you to believe that so they can pocket millions in profit off the housing crisis. They're trying to stir up a racist rage to justify giving themselves a tax break.

[theauspolchronicles]

Also, the housing crisis isn't caused by immigrants. We actually need MORE skilled immigrants to work in construction to build what's necessary.

Also a huge amount of healthcare workers are immigrants. Like 40% were born overseas. Most of them trained overseas. It's quicker to have someone move than to go through several years of medical school.

Internationally educated doctors who want to provide Medicare services must spend their first 10 years working in a regional, rural or remote community. If regional areas want easier access to healthcare then THEY RELY ON MIGRANT HEALTHCARE WORKERS. Rural One Nation/Coalition voters are literally voting against their own self interests.

Also areas with more migrants have increased productivity, employment and economic benefits.

If we drastically reduce immigration it'll tank the economy, make housing LESS AFFORDABLE and also people won't have access to healthcare because there'll be a skills shortage.

So even if we pretend the anti-immigration stance isn't racist it's still fucking stupid.

But hey, at least if the Coalition wins Angus Taylor will pay less in tax and you'll see maybe a couple less ethnically diverse people in the street.

[theauspolchronicles]

Angus Taylor has an estimated 9 properties that he hides from scrutiny behind a family trust. He's only clearly declared 2 on his register of interests. He's made more money off property than being an MP and sold a mansion for $6.77 million back in 2016. He has shareholdings in property management companies of over 3,000 hectares.

You know why he wants to reverse Labor's housing reforms? Because they make him pay a little more tax. That's it. He uses his family trust as a loophole to pay less tax - but Labor's new trust tax reforms would make it less profitable for him.

Immigrants aren't causing a supply and demand issue. Angus Taylor and the Coalition just want you to believe that so they can pocket millions in profit off the housing crisis. They're trying to stir up a racist rage to justify giving themselves a tax break.

[theauspolchronicles]

Changes to negative gearing and capital gains explained

First off: SO MUCH about the coverage and complaints I've seen online are SO WRONG about this. It genuinely does not inconvenience literally anyone but instead is focused on structural reform to re-balance housing affordability in the long term. The people complaining they're hard done by are lying.

OK to basically explain negative gearing: it is a tax deduction when an asset (like a house) makes a loss. So if rent returns less than the cost of a mortgage in a year then the investor gets a deduction on how much their income is taxed, much like when you make a donation to charity that reduces your taxable income - only in this case instead of helping those in need it just means investors pay less tax.

The problem with that is that it means investors go "oh sick - even if I buy a house and it's unprofitable in the short term I get a tax deduction!" so they buy up all the existing housing at the lower end of the market and people who want to buy their first home can't afford anything.

The reforms are simple: just make it so negative gearing for any new investment properties have to be new properties. If you want a tax deduction: you need to add to the existing supply of houses. If investors want to make money off houses they need to actually contribute instead of buying up pre-existing supply and driving housing costs through the roof.

So investors can still be greedy - but they're encouraged to do it in a way that is mutually beneficial instead of just entirely bad.

BUT to avoid actually pissing people off and destabilizing the market they GRANDFATHERED in pre-existing negatively geared properties. SO LITERALLY ALL THE BOOMERS GOING "OH NO! HOW DARE LABOR FUCK WITH MY PROPERTIES! I WORKED HARD TO BUILD UP THIS PORTFOLIO OF INVESTMENTS!" are literally not impacted at all. Holy shit. They still get the exact same tax deductions as they did before for negative gearing.

So anyone crying about it is crying crocodile tears. Boohoo. They can get fucked for not understanding that they're literally still being spoon-fed tax deductions so as to not rock the boat too much.

"But will that not lead to less properties for renters and thus increase rents?" NO! Again: it's a tax incentive to build new houses. Plus, negative gearing does not drive rents down anyway. By making investment properties slightly less profitable it slows housing price growth and makes it less competitive for people wanting to buy a home - thus reducing the amount of people who need to rent thus reducing the demand on the rental market. Landlords are never going to reduce your rent if they don't have to but if there are less landlords then that means there's also more opportunity for renters to become home owners. Plus, other government initiatives to build houses will actually create a net positive in the amount of homes created.

BUT the one thing that DOES impose a little (I mean little) imposition is getting rid of the capital gains tax discount. But that ONLY applies when you sell a property. Howard introduced a 50% discount for investors (which mean half of the profit they made on selling a house wasn't taxed) which again, incentivized investors to buy up any affordable house they could get and drive the market up to make a profit. Capital gains is how much an asset appreciates in value.

But the new arrangement is a minimum 30% minimum tax rate on capital gains (except if you make a loss you get an offset). They also only apply to gains accrued after 1 July 2027 so like... if a boomer wants to minimise their tax they can just sell an investment property within the next year and a bit and they'll be fucking fine. They'll make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for any house they've owned for more than a few years and only be partially taxed on that and they'll be RICH.

30% is the 2nd lowest tax bracket for income by the way. So the sale of a house that's really appreciated in value can still be taxed less than income.

Oh, plus calculating the capital gains is indexed to inflation, which is complicated (click here for examples that illustrate what that means) but basically you're taxed on real gains, therefore the higher inflation is the less those capital gains are taxable.

So really - why do all the boomers care? They already got free education. They already got to buy up houses back when they were cheap. They're still benefiting off grandfathered tax subsidies and the new arrangements simply encourage new houses to be built and tax people a little bit more when they sell an incredibly profitable asset. It's a win-win. Any criticisms that it impacts investors terribly is false. It's a nonsense lie aimed at people too busy or disinterested in actually reading any of the details of the reforms and that's what the Coalition is relying on. It can only win votes off the uninformed so wants people angry over literally nothing.

Capital gains tax doesn't apply to your residential home by the way. So it literally just impacts investment properties - not the house you live in if you're a homeowner.

But the aim isn't to get rid of investors entirely. The point is to just stop making it SO unbelievably profitable and lucrative that investors buy up TOO MANY houses and make it too competitive for people who actually need homes to live in. It encourages them to invest elsewhere (like in stocks to boost productivity) Investors decrease supply and drive prices up. This is not an instant fix. This is a long term structural reform to slow housing price growth and gradually make it easier for home owners to buy a house.

So why is the Coalition making such a big fuss about it and misrepresenting it? Because they want to redirect the conversation away from real structural reform for housing policy (which they have no real solutions for) to turn the national conversation into a racist cesspit of scapegoating immigrants and trying to win votes back off One Nation. They have no good policies so they might as well lie and hope that ignorance and hate return them to office.

Literally the only valid criticisms are that this did not go far enough. But it's a goddamn good start and a welcome one at that.

[theauspolchronicles]

We need to abolish negative gearing and we need to push for it NOW.

Housing affordability is unattainable unless we get rid of negative gearing. More supply won't matter if negative gearing continues to drive up prices and encourage investors to snap up all the affordable homes.

Pressure on this issue is building up in the Labor Party. Every three years they have a national conference where members debate and hash out policy. July 2026 is the next one so we won't have another before the next election.

So you need to contact your Labor MP AND your Labor Senators (there will be multiple) and tell them you want them to abolish/phase out negative gearing NOW.

Send multiple emails. Get others to do so too. Send one every month BEFORE July this year!

This is our chance to fight for this issue before they resolve to ignore our pleas for the next 3 years. So let's make noise while we can.

What is negative gearing?

Basically it's a tax break for investors. If you own a house, but the cost of maintaining that house is more than the return on investment then you deduct the difference from your taxable income. (Basically if mortgage is more than the rent then the difference is a tax break). It encourages investors to buy all the cheaper houses because it makes investment really appealing, which then creates a shortage of supply for people who want to own a home and subsequently drives up housing prices.

It benefits the rich who can buy multiple houses. It directly makes your hopes of owning a home less and less possible. It doesn't encourage new homes to be built. It doesn't help anyone but those who own multiple homes. Proponents of keeping it say it keeps rents down but that's not supported by data. In fact, it was temporarily removed in the 80s under Hawke and rents didn't go up except in Perth and Sydney, which had other factors driving those rents up. So it's bullshit to claim that giving billions to rich people will stop them from hiking rents another $250pw at their next opportunity.

So it literally just benefits rich people - not you. Tell Labor to abolish it NOW.

We should also get rid of the capital gains tax discount.

When someone sells a house that's gone up in value they get taxed on that profit (capital gains). However, Howard ALSO introduced a discount of 50% in the 90s so if you sell a house at $200,000 profit, you only get taxed for $100,000 of that.

Once again, this makes buying and selling houses for a profit more appealing to investors who decrease supply for home owners. They can use their investment properties as leverage to borrow more than someone trying to buy their first home so can pay more and drive up prices further.

It means that since the late 90s, housing prices have skyrocketed well ahead of wages:

Wage growth isn't the answer to the housing crisis. It cannot possibly catch up to what negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount continue to do to housing prices.

Combined, these tax breaks for the rich cost us BILLIONS.

These tax breaks encourage investors to buy more properties, which makes housing less affordable.

Those investors then drive up rent on us so we're paying to subsidise their 2nd, 5th, or even 27th mortgage.

If the rent doesn't cover all the costs of their mortage then OUR taxes pay to give THEM a tax break on their income.

Tens of billions a YEAR are spent subsidising investors who are profiting off your inability to EVER own a home.

Labor needs to care more about regular people than millionaires and the only way they demonstrate that is by getting rid of negative gearing/the capital gains tax discount.

What can we do about it? CONTACT LABOR AND DEMAND ACTION NOW.

Contact Labor Senators and members. DEMAND that they abolish negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Get others to demand the same as well.

Their national conference is THIS July. If we can pressure enough Labor MPs before July they can change the party's policy.

But we need to push hard NOW.

[theauspolchronicles]

IMPORTANT ADDITION! Housing is actually mostly a state responsibility, not federal.

Rental regulations are a state responsibility so if your landlord jacks your rent up by $150pw then blame your state government for not imposing a limit on rental increases (the ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia with caps on rent increases).

Minimum standards for rental properties is a state responsibility so if your landlord never fixes anything and there's black mould everywhere then blame your state government for not creating and enforcing minimum standards for rentals.

Can no one afford a home in regional areas because investors have bought up properties to turn them into AirBnbs? Blame the state government for not regulating short term accommodation.

How much public housing is being built? That's a state government responsibility.

So you absolutely should contact your state MPs about housing problems too. Find your state/territory parliament website and find your state MPs' emails.

BUT the federal government has power over most taxation, which means things like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Taxes can create pulls and pushes on markets and in this case it's pulling in investors and pushing our homeowners and driving up costs. Sure, a state government can announce another billion or two into building affordable housing, that's constantly being undone by the upward pressure on prices that's generated by federal tax breaks to the rich.

Making housing more affordable is a joint effort between federal AND state - but it won't work unless federal abolishes these tax breaks. It just won't work.

That's why you need to contact federal Labor MPs TODAY to tell them to abolish them.

[theauspolchronicles]

Have your voice heard now, while its impact is most needed.

[theauspolchronicles]

We need to abolish negative gearing and we need to push for it NOW.

Housing affordability is unattainable unless we get rid of negative gearing. More supply won't matter if negative gearing continues to drive up prices and encourage investors to snap up all the affordable homes.

Pressure on this issue is building up in the Labor Party. Every three years they have a national conference where members debate and hash out policy. July 2026 is the next one so we won't have another before the next election.

So you need to contact your Labor MP AND your Labor Senators (there will be multiple) and tell them you want them to abolish/phase out negative gearing NOW.

Send multiple emails. Get others to do so too. Send one every month BEFORE July this year!

This is our chance to fight for this issue before they resolve to ignore our pleas for the next 3 years. So let's make noise while we can.

What is negative gearing?

Basically it's a tax break for investors. If you own a house, but the cost of maintaining that house is more than the return on investment then you deduct the difference from your taxable income. (Basically if mortgage is more than the rent then the difference is a tax break). It encourages investors to buy all the cheaper houses because it makes investment really appealing, which then creates a shortage of supply for people who want to own a home and subsequently drives up housing prices.

It benefits the rich who can buy multiple houses. It directly makes your hopes of owning a home less and less possible. It doesn't encourage new homes to be built. It doesn't help anyone but those who own multiple homes. Proponents of keeping it say it keeps rents down but that's not supported by data. In fact, it was temporarily removed in the 80s under Hawke and rents didn't go up except in Perth and Sydney, which had other factors driving those rents up. So it's bullshit to claim that giving billions to rich people will stop them from hiking rents another $250pw at their next opportunity.

So it literally just benefits rich people - not you. Tell Labor to abolish it NOW.

We should also get rid of the capital gains tax discount.

When someone sells a house that's gone up in value they get taxed on that profit (capital gains). However, Howard ALSO introduced a discount of 50% in the 90s so if you sell a house at $200,000 profit, you only get taxed for $100,000 of that.

Once again, this makes buying and selling houses for a profit more appealing to investors who decrease supply for home owners. They can use their investment properties as leverage to borrow more than someone trying to buy their first home so can pay more and drive up prices further.

It means that since the late 90s, housing prices have skyrocketed well ahead of wages:

Wage growth isn't the answer to the housing crisis. It cannot possibly catch up to what negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount continue to do to housing prices.

Combined, these tax breaks for the rich cost us BILLIONS.

These tax breaks encourage investors to buy more properties, which makes housing less affordable.

Those investors then drive up rent on us so we're paying to subsidise their 2nd, 5th, or even 27th mortgage.

If the rent doesn't cover all the costs of their mortage then OUR taxes pay to give THEM a tax break on their income.

Tens of billions a YEAR are spent subsidising investors who are profiting off your inability to EVER own a home.

Labor needs to care more about regular people than millionaires and the only way they demonstrate that is by getting rid of negative gearing/the capital gains tax discount.

What can we do about it? CONTACT LABOR AND DEMAND ACTION NOW.

Contact Labor Senators and members. DEMAND that they abolish negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Get others to demand the same as well.

Their national conference is THIS July. If we can pressure enough Labor MPs before July they can change the party's policy.

But we need to push hard NOW.

[theauspolchronicles]

IMPORTANT ADDITION! Housing is actually mostly a state responsibility, not federal.

Rental regulations are a state responsibility so if your landlord jacks your rent up by $150pw then blame your state government for not imposing a limit on rental increases (the ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia with caps on rent increases).

Minimum standards for rental properties is a state responsibility so if your landlord never fixes anything and there's black mould everywhere then blame your state government for not creating and enforcing minimum standards for rentals.

Can no one afford a home in regional areas because investors have bought up properties to turn them into AirBnbs? Blame the state government for not regulating short term accommodation.

How much public housing is being built? That's a state government responsibility.

So you absolutely should contact your state MPs about housing problems too. Find your state/territory parliament website and find your state MPs' emails.

BUT the federal government has power over most taxation, which means things like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Taxes can create pulls and pushes on markets and in this case it's pulling in investors and pushing our homeowners and driving up costs. Sure, a state government can announce another billion or two into building affordable housing, that's constantly being undone by the upward pressure on prices that's generated by federal tax breaks to the rich.

Making housing more affordable is a joint effort between federal AND state - but it won't work unless federal abolishes these tax breaks. It just won't work.

That's why you need to contact federal Labor MPs TODAY to tell them to abolish them.

[theauspolchronicles]

We need to abolish negative gearing and we need to push for it NOW.

Housing affordability is unattainable unless we get rid of negative gearing. More supply won't matter if negative gearing continues to drive up prices and encourage investors to snap up all the affordable homes.

Pressure on this issue is building up in the Labor Party. Every three years they have a national conference where members debate and hash out policy. July 2026 is the next one so we won't have another before the next election.

So you need to contact your Labor MP AND your Labor Senators (there will be multiple) and tell them you want them to abolish/phase out negative gearing NOW.

Send multiple emails. Get others to do so too. Send one every month BEFORE July this year!

This is our chance to fight for this issue before they resolve to ignore our pleas for the next 3 years. So let's make noise while we can.

What is negative gearing?

Basically it's a tax break for investors. If you own a house, but the cost of maintaining that house is more than the return on investment then you deduct the difference from your taxable income. (Basically if mortgage is more than the rent then the difference is a tax break). It encourages investors to buy all the cheaper houses because it makes investment really appealing, which then creates a shortage of supply for people who want to own a home and subsequently drives up housing prices.

It benefits the rich who can buy multiple houses. It directly makes your hopes of owning a home less and less possible. It doesn't encourage new homes to be built. It doesn't help anyone but those who own multiple homes. Proponents of keeping it say it keeps rents down but that's not supported by data. In fact, it was temporarily removed in the 80s under Hawke and rents didn't go up except in Perth and Sydney, which had other factors driving those rents up. So it's bullshit to claim that giving billions to rich people will stop them from hiking rents another $250pw at their next opportunity.

So it literally just benefits rich people - not you. Tell Labor to abolish it NOW.

We should also get rid of the capital gains tax discount.

When someone sells a house that's gone up in value they get taxed on that profit (capital gains). However, Howard ALSO introduced a discount of 50% in the 90s so if you sell a house at $200,000 profit, you only get taxed for $100,000 of that.

Once again, this makes buying and selling houses for a profit more appealing to investors who decrease supply for home owners. They can use their investment properties as leverage to borrow more than someone trying to buy their first home so can pay more and drive up prices further.

It means that since the late 90s, housing prices have skyrocketed well ahead of wages:

Wage growth isn't the answer to the housing crisis. It cannot possibly catch up to what negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount continue to do to housing prices.

Combined, these tax breaks for the rich cost us BILLIONS.

These tax breaks encourage investors to buy more properties, which makes housing less affordable.

Those investors then drive up rent on us so we're paying to subsidise their 2nd, 5th, or even 27th mortgage.

If the rent doesn't cover all the costs of their mortage then OUR taxes pay to give THEM a tax break on their income.

Tens of billions a YEAR are spent subsidising investors who are profiting off your inability to EVER own a home.

Labor needs to care more about regular people than millionaires and the only way they demonstrate that is by getting rid of negative gearing/the capital gains tax discount.

What can we do about it? CONTACT LABOR AND DEMAND ACTION NOW.

Contact Labor Senators and members. DEMAND that they abolish negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Get others to demand the same as well.

Their national conference is THIS July. If we can pressure enough Labor MPs before July they can change the party's policy.

But we need to push hard NOW.

[theauspolchronicles]

I'm going to retire this blog soon.

I don't have much time for it anymore. Even during the height of the election I didn't have the motivation to use it as a campaign tool. I think it's time to move on so I'll be leaving soon.

Thanks to everyone who has been here over the past 12 years. Jesus that's far too long to still be on Tumblr for.

Cheers,

Steve.

[theauspolchronicles]

I'm going to retire this blog soon.

I don't have much time for it anymore. Even during the height of the election I didn't have the motivation to use it as a campaign tool. I think it's time to move on so I'll be leaving soon.

Thanks to everyone who has been here over the past 12 years. Jesus that's far too long to still be on Tumblr for.

Cheers,

Steve.

[theauspolchronicles]

If anyone tells you voting for Greens is a waste of time remember:

Children have dental in Medicare because of the Greens. The right to disconnect is because of the Greens. Labor's housing future fund only guarantees money towards housing because of the Greens. Our corporate tax laws are more transparent and improved thanks to the Greens. Labor continues to approve expansions for coal and gas projects but Greens managed to secure a ban on using the national reconstruction fund for investment in coal and gas projects and native logging. The list of Greens achievements goes on and on.

Your healthcare, your ability to ever afford a house, the regulation of corporations, the environmental protections we have and more are BETTER because of the Greens.

While it's very sad that they've lost their seats in the House of Representatives, they still solidly have the balance of power in the Senate. Labor needs to either get Greens approval or Coalition approval in the Senate to pass ANY bill and THAT is incredibly valuable.

Labor may want you to think it can take credit for anything good that happens this term - but I assure you it's the Greens negotiating with them that will secure the important amendments that improve Labor policy and actually get the outcomes we need.

You owe a lot to the Greens.

I'm so grateful that so many of you support them and helped make sure they got a strong presence in Parliament. Thank you.

[theauspolchronicles]

You'll be missed. Do you have any recomendations for other AusPol blogs like this one was before you go? Would be good to find some similar to follow.

Well I do enjoy official-auspol and batshit-auspol.

I'm sure people will recommend others in the notes.