20 June 2016
Housing affordability which has become an important issue in the federal election will be the subject of an Urban Taskforce debate, on Tuesday 21 June.
“A federal election is a good time to focus on housing affordability and this is why we have organised a debate tomorrow on this,” says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. “Championing the Labor Party position on changes to negative gearing is Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh and taking the government position is Assistant Minister for Cities, Angus Taylor.”
Two industry experts will also take up opposing positions with Grattan Institute CEO, John Daley arguing that negative gearing must change and former Westpac Chief Financial Officer, Dr Nigel Stapledon taking a different position.”
“These people are all experts in their field and people with great knowledge about economic issues and the impact of government policy on the cost and the supply of housing.”
“While the event is titled The Negative Gearing Debate it really covers the broader issue of housing in Australia. There are a number of competing interests in the housing debate. On one hand there are the first home owners trying to get an affordable home and on the other existing home owners keen to maintain the value of their asset. Some argue that changes to negative gearing will lead to a collapse of the housing investment market while others say by applying negative gearing only to new property will boost housing supply.”
“Our aim in hosting this debate is to get all issues on the table so those involved in the housing industry can understand the policy implications.”
“It is highly likely that after the federal election the issues of housing affordability and of housing supply will still require policy improvements and our debate sets the scene for more discussion and research on these issues.”
