2 weeks ago
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Environment Minister Murray Watt has brushed off poor polling of the government’s budget, saying that Labor made unannounced changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount to fix the housing crisis, not bolster the government’s popularity.
“We didn’t design these budget measures ... so that we could get some sort of short-term hit in the polls. We didn’t expect to get a bounce in the polls. What we’re doing it to do, to achieve, is to boost the number of young Australians who can get a foothold in the housing market,” Watt told ABC radio.
“If we change our position, we’ve got an obligation to explain that, and again, if we think about the alternative ... it’s that we just leave things in place as they are: seeing more and more young Australians, in particular, shut out of the market, rents continuing to spiral, and greater inequality in our society, and that’s not what a Labor government is about.”
In this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor, published last night, Labor slumped 3 percentage points and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor took over Anthony Albanese as preferred prime minister. More than a third of polled voters said their view of Labor had been damaged after the government broke an election promise not to touch negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
“It’s our job to get out there and explain these decisions, and you know, I’m still finding there’s a lot of people who haven’t heard that, for example, negative gearing that’s already occurred is grandfathered, so people can continue the arrangements they’ve got in place already, and of course people will still be able to negatively gear new builds,” Watt said.
“They’re not only building their own wealth, but they’re adding to the country’s wealth as well. So that’s the job we’ve got ahead of us over the next few weeks and months, is to explain these changes and demonstrate that they will allow more young Australians to get into the housing market when they’ve been shut out for far too long.”
