Monday, 25 February 2019

Nights at the round table

Canberra round table

I've been too busy (well, OK, that and at the beach) to discuss with any of the attendees, but the recent housing round table in Canberra was certainly an interesting one.

Among other notables, it was attended by Doron Peleg of RiskWise, with whom I co-wrote a detailed paper on the potential impacts and consequences arising from Labor's proposed negative gearing and CGT policies. 

This summary is well worth a read from Queenslander Gene Tunny, including the noteworthy extract below:


Source: Queensland Economy Watch

Indeed.

I've raised some similar points before.

The timing issue could be overcome.

After all, the Coalition showed with its 2017 depreciation amendments to Section 40 that a mid-year change to tax policy could feasibly be pushed through. 

The bigger challenge for Labor, assuming they still genuinely have the desire to see the reforms through, is that the current composition of senators will potentially make life tricky. 

Some will back the reforms, some will oppose them, but based upon the preferences of the those senators in the middle ground the outcome might yet prove to be a cap on negative gearing claims or another watered-down alternative.