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Chalmers defends about-face on negative gearing

By Brittany Busch

Jim Chalmers said the government had been focused on housing supply at last year’s election when questioned over the government’s promise not to touch negative gearing settings.

“When it comes to comments that we have made in the past, I do acknowledge that during the election campaign, the focus was almost exclusively on supply, plus the 5 per cent deposits. I think our comments and commitments at the time reflected that, but we also need to understand, and I’m increasingly of the view that we need to go beyond supply,” Chalmers told Sky News.

Pressed on whether he had always had ambitions to make changes to negative gearing, he said:

“My goal at the election was to build more homes, and we’re doing that. We’ve got building commencements up, I think, more than 26 per cent in the most recent data. That was our commitment at the election campaign, and we’ve been following through with that.”