Nat Barr loses it at Anthony Albaneses govt after struggling to get a straight answer to simple question

Nat Barr has unleashed at a Labor minister over the governments refusal to confirm or deny if it is considering changing negative gearing rules. 

The Sunrise host spoke to Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth in a heated interview on Wednesday morning following reports the government had sought advice from Treasury about scaling back tax benefits for property investors. 

Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese avoided giving a straight answer on the subject when pressed by reporters at a press conference in Tasmania. 

Negative gearing policies allow property investors to claim tax deductions when the costs of owning and maintaining their investment properties, such as loan interest and maintenance expenses, exceed the rental income they earn from them.

This tax benefit can reduce the property investors taxable income and is used by investors to lower their tax bills.

Amanda, are you considering scaling back negative gearing in this country? Barr asked.

Ms Rishworth said Labor was focused on getting more houses built to address the nations housing shortage and it was not Labors current proposal to add negative gearing measures to that. 

Weve got a really ambitious housing policy that is focused on supply. It is not our proposal to address or to add negative gearing to that. Were getting on with the job of increasing supply for housing, she said.

Labor Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth (left) copped a grilling from Nat Barr (right) over reports the government sought advice about scaling back negative gearing

But Barr pressed on asking if the government had specifically sought advice about scaling back the tax benefits from Treasury, even if it was not part of a current proposal.

Well, Treasury does this sort of work... it would have done so under the Coalition... routine work all the time around different policies, different ideas. 

Barr repeated the question multiple times but, rather than give a yes or no response, Ms Rishworth then took aim at her political opponents. 

I have to be very clear that as the government, our focus is on delivering our housing agenda that we have got in front of us, quite frankly, if the Greens and the Coalition would get out of the way in the Senate.

Okay thats obviously a non-answer, an exasperated Barr said.

Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume, who appeared on the same interview as Ms Rishworth, claimed scaling back negative gearing could reduce the amount of rental properties provided by investor landlords.

You take away negative gearing, as clearly the government are planning to do, thats why they are commissioning the work… you are going do have a dramatic impact on rental supply, she said.

Thats a real problem in this country already. It would only make it worse.   

Former Labor leader Bill Shortens plan to get rid of negative gearing contributed to him losing the unloseable election to Scott Morrison in 2019. 

When Mr Albanese took over, he said changes to negative gearing were off the table.

Anthony Albanese would not confirm whether his government is considering changes to the tax benefits for property investors amid a housing shortage

In interviews last week, Mr Albanese was asked repeatedly if Labor would consider changes to negative gearing, and at no point did he rule it out.

I dont answer those sorts of questions, he said on ABC Radio National last Thursday. 

But two days before that, he publicly made reference to a claim from the Property Council of Australia that changing negative gearing would hurt housing supply.

So that is one of the reasons why were very cautious about that, he told ABC Radio Sydney.

Being cautious is not ruling something out, though, and one Labor official who spoke to Nine Newspapers said: This is what Labor needs and wants – they need to have a fight on policies that shows what they stand for.

Its in the values frame. This is why Albo was reticent about ruling it out the other day. Look at what Albo has said, he has not knocked it on the head.

This will give the government something big and positive to talk about, it will be a major talking point in the campaign.

Governments often request policy evaluations from Treasury officials without intending to follow through with changes.  

However, according to the official, the modelling suggested that Labor was gearing up to present changes before the upcoming election.

Labor requested similar modelling from the bureaucracy before changing the Coalitions Stage Three tax cuts earlier this year.