Federal budget 2019: Labor leader Bill Shorten recommits to negative gearing plan

Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has reaffirmed Labor’s plan to curb tax concessions for negatively geared investment properties if the party wins the next election, focusing on the concerns of young voters and first-home buyers.

Mr Shorten made a pitch for “intergenerational fairness” in his budget reply speech on Thursday night, touching on the housing market, franking credits, climate change and education.

He painted Labor’s plan to limit negative gearing tax breaks to new properties only, while grandfathering arrangements for existing investors, as an attempt to “lead the reform debate”.

“You cannot have property investors playing with loaded dice against our young people, Generation Y and the Millennials,” Mr Shorten said.

“And instead of patronising millions of young Australians with lectures about cutting back on smashed avo, let’s tell the truth.”

Saving a 20 per cent deposit was much harder than it was two decades ago, he said.

“And it’s even more difficult, when your government uses your taxpayer money to subsidise the property investors bidding against you.

“A government has to be brave enough and decent enough to stop the bias against first home buyers and young people.”

The party’s housing tax policy has been staunchly opposed by the federal government. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has criticised the timing of the plan, amid a widespread housing market slowdown.

Elsewhere, Mr Shorten made reference to the party’s plans to support the nascent build-to-rent sector, in which apartment towers could be owned by superannuation funds instead of mum and dad landlords.

He mentioned the party’s affordable housing policy to build a quarter of a million new homes, and a plan to provide accommodation for survivors of domestic violence.

It comes after the federal budget this week made scant mention of housing, with $1.7 billion recommitted for affordable housing but few new measures announced.

The budget did prioritise capital city congestion, setting aside $100 billion for infrastructure such as roads and fast rail over the next decade.

Mr Shorten also focused on infrastructure around the country in his reply.

He announced $1.5 billion to upgrade the Gateway Motorway and the Bruce Highway in Brisbane.

And he listed planned transport projects from each state: Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, the Western Sydney Metro, Melbourne’s suburban rail loop, Tasmania’s Bridgewater Bridge, SA’s South Road, Perth’s Metronet, Kakadu’s roads and the ACT light rail.