The high cost of Australia’s unfair tax system

31 Jan 2024

A new report by Maiy Azize from Everybody’s Home highlights the inequitable expenditure on tax breaks for investors versus expenditure on housing and homelessness services. The report examines how over the last forty years, Commonwealth Government housing policy has been geared to wards subsidising the private market, rather than directly supplying social housing.

In 2021 -2022, expenditure on negative gearing deductions and Capital Gains Tax exemptions was $8.5 Billion, while housing and homelessness spending was $1.6 Billion.

The report recommends:

  1. Abolish negative gearing and the capital gains tax to reduce speculative investment.
  2. Build one million social housing properties over the next two decades to meet current and future need.
  3. Increase and expand Commonwealth Rent Assistance so that it relieves financial stress for people on low incomes.

The report can be downloaded here.