The Liberal senator Maria Kovacic has called for tax changes to boost home ownership including capping the number of properties an investor can negatively gear, a stance that puts her at odds with the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
Kovacic, a New South Wales moderate who filled the vacancy of the late senator Jim Molan, called on the current parliament to do more to tackle the housing crisis in her first Senate speech on Tuesday.
Kovacic also called for greater female participation in the labour market by addressing “exorbitant” childcare costs and praised fellow moderate Liberals for championing the environment.
Australia is in the grip of a housing affordability crisis, with 12 consecutive interest rate rises biting homeowners and rents rising at their fastest rates since the global financial crisis.
On Tuesday Kovacic told the Senate that for young Australians “simply working hard does not appear to be enough any more” to realise the “great Australian dream” of owning their own home.
“Average property prices have more than doubled as a multiple of wages over the last 30 years,” she said.
“The task of saving for a deposit is even more challenging when rents are also on the rise. As a consequence if you are under 40, you are less likely today to own a home than in any other time in the modern era.”
Kovacic said that booming house prices were “driving wealth inequality between property owners and rents, and exacerbating an intergenerational inequity between young and old”.
“We should not be afraid to consider tax changes. Whether it be capping the number of properties that can be negatively geared, or working with the states to replace stamp duty, or at a minimum to correct decades of bracket creep.
“A serious plan by this parliament has to deal with the housing crisis. And it would go a long way to restoring the electorate’s faith in political leadership to solve big problems and deliver reform.”
After losing the 2019 election campaign which promised a broader crackdown on tax concessions including negative gearing, capital gains tax concessions and excess franking credits for those not paying tax, Labor abandoned these policies ahead of the 2022 poll.
In February the Treasury revealed in 2019-20 taxpayers reported total rental losses of $10.2bn, delivering them a $3.6bn tax benefit because rental losses can be deducted to reduce tax paid on other income.
Labor claims it has not contemplated changes to negative gearing, but has not ruled out changes to tax treatment of housing in future.
In May, Dutton said that changes to negative gearing were “dangerous talk because we need more rental stock in the pool”.
Dutton said the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was working to “kill off negative gearing, which will undermine investment”.
“People who are renting at the moment who can’t afford to buy, I don’t know what happens to them if property investors decide that it’s an unsafe asset class.”
Kovacic backed the Coalition’s signature policy to allow workers to access superannuation to buy a home, which it took to the 2022 election and Dutton recommitted to in his October budget reply.
Kovacic said that Australia must be vigilant to threats against liberalism including “rightwing populism and leftwing preoccupations with equality of outcomes”.
Kovacic praised women’s participation in the labour market as “imperative”, calling government to address “systemic barriers” including the “exorbitant cost of childcare, lack of parental leave support, the gender pay gap and underrepresentation in leadership roles”.
Kovacic said that women experienced a “real frustration with politics” because they were “speaking up [but] Canberra was not listening”. “This is a longstanding problem that persists over multiple governments.”
Kovacic praised her friends and fellow moderates Matt Kean, the former NSW treasurer who she described as a “fellow Liberal fighter for the environment and economic empowerment”, and the federal Liberal MP Julian Leeser, a key backer of the Indigenous voice.
