Negative Gearing

Always risky when the Greens venture into the area of making policy on economic matters.

The modelling is flawed for a few reasons.

First, as happened when Keating tried this, it would have a detrimental effect on the availablitity of supply for the rental market.

Second, following on from this point, the estimated amount of tax raised does not take into account investor behaviour. For many investors, owning a rental property may only be viable with NG. Without NG, investors will simply move their capital elsewhere, leaving a growing number of renters competing for fewer available properties = increased rental prices.

[BTW: I see even Skynews has fallen for Swan-speak. Swannie loved calling tax increases "savings" to put a positive spin on matters for the unsophisticated and pretend he was reducing the expenditure side of the ledger, not raising revenue.  It is disappointing to see Sky describing increased taxes  as "savings" - an increase in tax is just that - an increase in tax.]