Whether you consider property investment a business or not is irrelevant. Landlords are in the business of supplying longer term accommodation in a similar way to hotels providing shorter term accommodation. If you want to stop the flipping of properties/shorter term speculation then address that by making it more attractive to own property longer term i.e. the longer you hold the less your capital gains tax liability should be.
"So the first home seller grant was put in place because of the GST? Why should the housing market be shielded from GST? Why not apply grants to almost everything to avoid GST. Oh, of course, because the entire tax structure is set up to the benefit of the property game."
Yes it was introduced as compensation for the GST. I didn't say it was right or wrong to be introduced for that reason.
""If you honestly think the government would mess with either of these things if property really starts to fall you are deluded" - I am a little stunned at this comment. That is exactly what the government did in the GFC - increase the first home sellers grant. More subsidies/wealth transfers to keep the bubble inflated."
I was not talking about the first home owner boosts applied as part of GFC stimulus - they were put in place for very different reasons to the the first home buyers grant which you were talking about.
