Andrew Leigh

LIBERALS' WAR ON FACTS CONTINUES

The Liberals are waging a War on Facts. Their new glossy – Labor’s War on Business – is just the latest case in point.

Finding exactly where to start pulling it apart is hard, but let’s give it a go with two examples.

Example 1

Page 3 alleges that Labor’s proposed changes to the Capital Gains Tax discount will hurt small businesses. Rubbish.

Labor’s fact sheet clearly states: The CGT discount will not change for small business assets. This will ensure that no small businesses are worse off under these changes.

The suggestion that our changes to Capital Gains Taxation will hurt sole traders and small businesses is just plain wrong.

But hey, it’s war on facts amirite, ScoMo?

Example 2

Last night, Scott Morrison told ABC’s The Business: “Changing negative gearing is… going to undermine the value of people’s homes and it’s going to crash house prices”.

But on page 15 of the glossy: [page 15] CAMEO Belinda earns $80,000 per year. She buys an established home as an investment property after 1 July 2017, which she intends to use to fund her retirement in 10 years’ time. She takes out a loan to buy the property and makes a net rental loss of $6,000 each year. In 10 years’ time Belinda stands to make a capital gain of $400,000. Over the next ten years she will pay the following amounts in income tax…..

By the Liberal Party’s own document, under Labor’s policies house prices will continue to rise, investors will not abandon the housing market like Mr Turnbull claims, and in fact investors like Belinda will continue to reap healthy capital gains from their housing investments. The claim that house prices will crash comes with a resounding “yeah, nah”.

Rather than using facts, Scott Morrison would rather defend tax concessions that overwhelmingly benefit the top 10 per cent of income earners.

The Liberals have no plan to boost new housing supply.

Labor will continue to defend facts, and promote fair and sensible reforms that improve the budget bottom line, increase housing supply, and help young Australians buy their first home.