Anthony Albanese has indicated universal childcare will be an element of Labor’s re-election pitch and refused to rule out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.
The prime minister made the comments in a wide-ranging and at times prickly interview on ABC Radio National, insisting there is “nothing timid” about his government’s approach as Labor comes under fire for failing to offer concessions to pass its signature housing bills.
Albanese defended existing housing tax settings, warning changes could “decrease supply”, and Labor’s plan for a partial gambling ad ban, arguing public policy is not made to “satisfy a perception of boldness”.
He also argued “the problem isn’t advertising, the problem is gambling”, despite public health experts consistently calling for a total ban. The Greens’ communication spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said Albanese was “dead wrong, and it is extremely disappointing to see him backtracking” on gambling ads.
On Thursday, as he travels to the US to the Quad leaders’ summit, Albanese will stop in Cairns to launch work on Queensland’s biggest ever social and affordable housing project.
The visit follows a stalemate in the Senate with the Coalition and Greens combining to delay Labor’s proposed shared home equity scheme Help to Buy, and the release of a Productivity Commission report recommending universal access to 30 hours or three days of childcare a week.
Albanese told Radio National the government would consider the report but the alternative possibility of a universal 90% subsidy for the first child in daycare was not off the table.
Albanese noted in its first term Labor had delivered subsidies making childcare cheaper for 1.2m families and a 15% pay rise for early childhood educators, a “precondition for a successful sector”.
“We’re absolutely committed to making childcare affordable,” he said. Universal childcare “certainly will be an element” of Labor’s vision for its second term. “I want universal childcare to be available.”
Asked if the next election would be a referendum on housing, Albanese said “elections are always about the full suite of measures” but boasted Labor is “doing what we can to overcome up more than a decade of neglect”.
Albanese said Labor had committed a total of $32bn towards housing, which included $10bn invested in the Housing Australia Future Fund, earnings from which will fund 13,700 social and affordable homes in the first round.
Albanese accused the “Noalition” of the Coalition and Greens of blocking access to 40,000 places in the Help to Buy scheme for “low and middle-income earners to be able to get into home ownership” by delaying the bill until November, “effectively defeating the legislation”.
Albanese also took aim at the Greens for blocking build to rent tax incentives because “developers will benefit” while the Coalition “just go along with this nonsense”.
Asked about the Greens’ demands to trim negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions in return for their vote on Help to Buy, Albanese said that “they’re tax measures” and “not what this legislation’s about”.
In a prickly exchange, Albanese was asked if changes to housing taxes were completely off the table. He replied that he doesn’t “answer those sorts of questions” labelling rule-in rule-out questions “not terribly clever”.
“We’re interested in the tax policy that we are implementing, not the ones that we’re not.”
Albanese said negative gearing and capital gains tax changes “were rejected” at the 2019 election and Labor was interested in policies that “will increase supply”.
“[A] whole lot of economists will tell you that the measures that you talk about will not increase supply and the danger is they will decrease supply.”
Albanese also said he was not interested in hypotheticals about a double dissolution election, explaining that the option had been canvassed only because “journalists raised it with me”.
Asked about the charge of former Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Bill Kelty that the government is mired in “mediocrity”, Albanese trumpeted Labor’s achievements in its first term, including avoiding recession, real wage growth and investments in the care sector and energy transition.
He said there was “nothing timid” about the “tough decision” to revamp stage-three tax cuts to benefit low and middle-income earners and “significant intervention” in the energy market to control coal and gas prices.
Asked about Labor’s partial gambling ad ban instead of a total ban recommended by an inquiry chaired by the late MP Peta Murphy, Albanese said “it’s not a matter of doing something in order to satisfy a perception of boldness”.
Not all experts support a gambling ad ban, he claimed, arguing that “the problem isn’t advertising, the problem is gambling”. In fact, public health experts have consistently called for a total ban and raised concerns about the effectiveness of a partial ban.
“Overwhelmingly almost 70% of problem gambling is about poker machines and an additional about 15% is about lotteries and lottos,” Albanese said.
Albanese said that the total ban was “characterised as being bold” but was actually the “easy option” to “not worry about the consequences for sporting codes, junior sport” and for the media “but to do what lobby groups want you to do”.
At a press conference in Canberra, Hanson-Young flagged the Greens have given notice of a new bill to push for a total gambling ad ban.
“I think people are wondering right across the country, what is wrong with this government?,” she said. “Can’t they just be better? Can’t the prime minister just be better and not so crap?”
