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Waleed Aly takes on Turnbull over negative gearing

The Project

The Project

Waleed Aly has launched an attack on the Coalition government’s negative gearing policy.

The Project co-host devoted his regular ‘Something we should talk about’ segment on Wednesday night to tearing down the investing concession, which he said was making Australian homes unaffordable.

“Economists agree that negative gearing pushes house prices up and contributes to making our houses some of the most expensive in the world,” he said.

“And if you’re from Generation X or Y or you’re a Millennial, it’s one of the reasons you can’t afford a house.”

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On Sunday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced his government would not change negative gearing or the capital gains tax. It was a response to Labor’s promise to phase out negative gearing and cut capital gains tax discounts for investment properties.

Aly was supportive of Labor’s policy, despite describing party leader Bill Shorten as “the complaining neighbour” who was trying to shut the party (aka negative gearing) down.

Watch Aly’s rant below:

He lampooned the media stunt pulled by Mr Turnbull on Sunday. The Prime Minister used a negatively-geared Sydney family to champion the cause.

Mr Turnbull was widely criticised because the family he chose admitted they were negatively gearing to buy the home for their one-year-old baby. Many pundits pointed out that if it is necessary for parents to start saving for a property for their child when he or she is born, house prices must be too expensive.

Aly was equally unimpressed.

malcolm turnbull negative gearing

Mr Turnbull meets the Mignacca’s, including the one-year-old home owner. Photo: AAP

“So to recap, negative gearing has contributed to you, Generation X, Y and Millennials not being able to buy a home, but it got this baby one.”

The host also took aim at Turnbull’s reliance on “common sense” rather than hard data on negative gearing in interviews — and noted a recent report that reminded Australians that the electorate with the highest proportion of negative gearers is … Turnbull’s.

The controversial co-host then turned to older Australians who complained houses had always been hard to buy. Aly conceded this was true, but argued buying a home had never been as difficult as it had been now.

“Let’s go time travelling. It’s 1960, an average house cost your grandparents 1.6 times their household income. In 1985, it cost your parents 2.25 times their household income.

“Right now, when you want to buy your first home, the cost of the average house is roughly 4.3 times household income. Which is amazing considering so many more houses have two incomes now. So good luck if you’re single.”

He returned to the example of the one-year-old: “… unless you’re a baby boomer, or apparently an actual baby, you’re not invited to this [property] party.

“For the last 17 years, investors have been partying like it’s 1999, but it’s time we shut the party down.”

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