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April 17, 2025
Thursday 17 April 2025
Oscar Godsell
Sky News
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of lying to the Australian public after denying that his government commissioned modelling on changes to negative gearing.
During the leaders' debate with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Mr Albanese was asked directly if his government commissioned Treasury to assess negative gearing reform.
“It certainly wasn’t commissioned by us to do so,” Mr Albanese told voters, as he insisted that his government would not make changes to the policy.
He was asked about why he was unwilling to change negative gearing or capital gains tax breaks at this election, when Mr Dutton raised the fact his government "modelled negative gearing changes and CGT changes".
“Well that’s not right… That's not right… I have been very clear. I have been very clear about what our position is,” he said.
The Albanese government asked Treasury for advice on scaling back negative gearing and CGT concessions in 2024.
Treasury does not spontaneously decide to model changes to policies, such as negative gearing, unless the issue is specifically raised by the government.
“It was modelled by the government. That's publicly available. This Prime Minister has a problem with the truth,” Mr Dutton said in reply to his debate opponent.
Mr Albanese’s claim Treasury was "not commissioned" directly contradicts his own Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, who admitted he asked his department to examine potential changes.
“I get advice all the time on all the various issues in the economy, including negative gearing, and that’s not especially unusual,” Mr Chalmers said at the time.
“I got this advice because it was a contentious issue, it was in the public domain, and it was a big part of the parliamentary debate as well.”
When asked again this week whether he had formally requested the modelling, Mr Chalmers did not deny it.
“From time to time, the public service provides advice on issues which are in the public domain, and that’s the point that the Prime Minister made today as well,” he said after the debate.
Asked specifically if his department modelled changes to negative gearing of its own accord, without instruction, Mr Chalmers said “No”.
The Treasurer’s failure to directly deny that he requested the modelling has only fuelled concerns that Labor may be hiding a “secret plan” to overhaul housing tax concessions.
Shadow home affairs Minister James Paterson has described Mr Albanese’s remark as the “most bald-faced lie” of the campaign so far.
“If the Prime Minister will lie about this, what else will he lie about?” Mr Paterson said to Sky News on Thursday.
"This is a guy who lied about our record when it comes to health, our record when it comes to education.
"He's even lied about falling off the stage when it was captured on video. This is not a Prime Minister that Australians can trust."
The senior Coalition frontbencher said the Treasurer needed to explain whether he and Mr Albanese were attempting to "mislead" Australians on negative gearing.
"If he's lying about negative gearing now. What is his secret plan on negative gearing in the next term of parliament?" Mr Paterson said.
"We know his future coalition partners in the Greens will make it a condition of forming government after the next election."
The debate over Labor’s true intentions on negative gearing and capital gains tax has dogged the government for years.
The Australian Greens have said changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax would be “priorities” in negotiating with Labor in the event of a hung parliament.
The left-wing minor party wants to scrap the capital gains tax concession and negative gearing but grandfather both policies to just one investment property.
"We are putting this on the table as one of the key things that we want to negotiate with Labor on in the form of a minority government," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young told Sky News on Thursday.
The latest polling points to the likely outcome of a hung parliament in which the Albanese government would need to seek supply and confidence from the crossbench.
"The Greens, I'm not negotiating with the Greens. We make it very clear... The truth is we are aiming for majority government," Mr Albanese said on Thursday.
Despite the ruling out of any former deal with the Greens, Mr Dutton told Sky News he was not buying it.
“They're blood brothers, Anthony Albanese and Adam Bandt are joined at the hip, only their mothers can tell them apart,” he said.
“So I just think this is a huge problem… The Prime Minister will jump into bed with the Greens after the election if it means that’s what he has to do to get into government."