Offical Auspol

To this day, Angus cannot post on social media without being flooded with comments reading "Fantastic. Great Move. Well done Angus."

We need to abolish negative gearing and we need to push for it NOW.

Housing affordability is unattainable unless we get rid of negative gearing. More supply won't matter if negative gearing continues to drive up prices and encourage investors to snap up all the affordable homes.

Pressure on this issue is building up in the Labor Party. Every three years they have a national conference where members debate and hash out policy. July 2026 is the next one so we won't have another before the next election.

So you need to contact your Labor MP AND your Labor Senators (there will be multiple) and tell them you want them to abolish/phase out negative gearing NOW.

Send multiple emails. Get others to do so too. Send one every month BEFORE July this year!

This is our chance to fight for this issue before they resolve to ignore our pleas for the next 3 years. So let's make noise while we can.

What is negative gearing?

Basically it's a tax break for investors. If you own a house, but the cost of maintaining that house is more than the return on investment then you deduct the difference from your taxable income. (Basically if mortgage is more than the rent then the difference is a tax break). It encourages investors to buy all the cheaper houses because it makes investment really appealing, which then creates a shortage of supply for people who want to own a home and subsequently drives up housing prices.

It benefits the rich who can buy multiple houses. It directly makes your hopes of owning a home less and less possible. It doesn't encourage new homes to be built. It doesn't help anyone but those who own multiple homes. Proponents of keeping it say it keeps rents down but that's not supported by data. In fact, it was temporarily removed in the 80s under Hawke and rents didn't go up except in Perth and Sydney, which had other factors driving those rents up. So it's bullshit to claim that giving billions to rich people will stop them from hiking rents another $250pw at their next opportunity.

So it literally just benefits rich people - not you. Tell Labor to abolish it NOW.

We should also get rid of the capital gains tax discount.

When someone sells a house that's gone up in value they get taxed on that profit (capital gains). However, Howard ALSO introduced a discount of 50% in the 90s so if you sell a house at $200,000 profit, you only get taxed for $100,000 of that.

Once again, this makes buying and selling houses for a profit more appealing to investors who decrease supply for home owners. They can use their investment properties as leverage to borrow more than someone trying to buy their first home so can pay more and drive up prices further.

It means that since the late 90s, housing prices have skyrocketed well ahead of wages:

Wage growth isn't the answer to the housing crisis. It cannot possibly catch up to what negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount continue to do to housing prices.

Combined, these tax breaks for the rich cost us BILLIONS.

These tax breaks encourage investors to buy more properties, which makes housing less affordable.

Those investors then drive up rent on us so we're paying to subsidise their 2nd, 5th, or even 27th mortgage.

If the rent doesn't cover all the costs of their mortage then OUR taxes pay to give THEM a tax break on their income.

Tens of billions a YEAR are spent subsidising investors who are profiting off your inability to EVER own a home.

Labor needs to care more about regular people than millionaires and the only way they demonstrate that is by getting rid of negative gearing/the capital gains tax discount.

What can we do about it? CONTACT LABOR AND DEMAND ACTION NOW.

Contact Labor Senators and members. DEMAND that they abolish negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Get others to demand the same as well.

Their national conference is THIS July. If we can pressure enough Labor MPs before July they can change the party's policy.

Rental regulations are a state responsibility so if your landlord jacks your rent up by $150pw then blame your state government for not imposing a limit on rental increases (the ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia with caps on rent increases).

Minimum standards for rental properties is a state responsibility so if your landlord never fixes anything and there's black mould everywhere then blame your state government for not creating and enforcing minimum standards for rentals.

Can no one afford a home in regional areas because investors have bought up properties to turn them into AirBnbs? Blame the state government for not regulating short term accommodation.

How much public housing is being built? That's a state government responsibility.

So you absolutely should contact your state MPs about housing problems too. Find your state/territory parliament website and find your state MPs' emails.

BUT the federal government has power over most taxation, which means things like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Taxes can create pulls and pushes on markets and in this case it's pulling in investors and pushing our homeowners and driving up costs. Sure, a state government can announce another billion or two into building affordable housing, that's constantly being undone by the upward pressure on prices that's generated by federal tax breaks to the rich.

Making housing more affordable is a joint effort between federal AND state - but it won't work unless federal abolishes these tax breaks. It just won't work.

https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/countdown/hottest100

We have SBS - the multicultural broadcaster - which is best known for broadcasting free-to-air porn every night before the internet became a thing. We have the ABC, which is largely a mix of BBC re-runs for Boomers and kids TV shows like Bluey (yes that Bluey) and Round The Twist - a kids show where one of the characters wins a swimming competition by spinning his dick like a propellor.

And finally, we have the radio station Triple J - the ABC's little brother with the government remit of making anyone over the age of 30 very angry.

Triple J is best known for using its government funding to get up to the most ridiculous shit it can think of, including events such as Requestival, a day where they let the public decide their entire playlist during COVID, leading to the station to air tracks ranging from "Adam Sandler - Somebody Kill Me", "The Wii Channel Theme", and "Music From The Motion Picture Association Against Copyright Theft Advertisement 'You Wouldn't Steal A Car'".

When not being downright tomfoolish, Triple J is also known for having an almost olympic level track record for unearthing new musicians, having discovered and supported acts like Lorde, Gotye, The Kid Laroi, Tyler The Creator, and even Billie Eilish when they were still fledgling baby artists that nobody had heard of.

(They're also responsible for making Dance Monkey a thing though, so swings and roundabouts).

On top of these hyjinx, every year Triple J holds a national poll that is effectively the closest thing this country has to a state religion. Unlike the less important national votes we hold every four years to decide which tosspots will be running the country, Triple J's Hottest 100 is considered the peak of democracy in Australia, amassing millions of votes annualy to decide on the greatest song of the last 12 months.

(To prove we're not joking: even the Prime Minister posted his votes to Facebook this year, and somewhat over-optimistically tagged Billie Eilish)

Once all the votes are in, a vast majority of the country tunes-in to hear the results on an annual public holiday. (A vast majority of the country also get angry at the results - to the point that "You're kidding, shoulda been higher" has become something of a national catchphrase.)

Previous performers to place in the poll include:

Denis Leary's Asshole, voted #1 in 1993

Premier Dan Andrews, when his speech about not going out to buy beer during lockdowns was remixed into a club dance track and landed at #12 in 2020, and

The Wiggles covering Tame Impala, which was voted to #1 in 2021

In recent years there's been a lot of dismay because the introduction of Spotify has effectively killed the Australian music industry, meaning the Hottest 100 has been getting dominated by American musicians, as well as killing off traditional radio stations like Triple J.

This poll is one last fighting chance for us to see some Australians actually chart for a change.

So chuck your votes in and give some Aussie musos some love, whether that's fellow tumblerite Troye Sivan, Tom "Have You Checked Your Butthole" Cardy, or some small niche indie artist like AC/DC.

Just a reminder that good things WILL happen under this Labor government but it's BECAUSE Greens have the balance of power in the Senate. The Greens will introduce and negotiate much needed reforms and then Labor will lie through its teeth to convince you that it was their idea and their achievements.

Thank you to everyone who voted Greens. You're the reason why Australia will have any reasonable policies over the next 3 years.

The budget would be WORSE under the Coalition than Labor - according to *checks notes* the Coalition's OWN COSTINGS.

Dutton has been pushing the ever reliable lie that the Coalition will be better at handling money, yet costings just released by the Coalition show the budget would be several billion dollars worse off with larger deficits. They released them just before the election in the hopes that no one would notice so shhhh definitely don't tell your friends and family that the Coalition's policies will cost the budget way more than Labor's.

This should come as no surprise because despite the Coalition claiming it can save money with cuts to the public service, the work still needs to get done so in the last year of Morrison alone the Coalition spent $20.8 billion on private consultants and outsourcing public sector jobs to the more expensive private sector. Labor has saved the budget BILLIONS by bringing those jobs back into the public sector.

Dutton also personally is known for dodgy finances given he "failed" to declare on the register of interests his involvement in a family trust that made $15 million in profit over 20 years.

The only way the Coalition handles money well is under the table.

Use your vote in the best interest of people with less privilege than you.

Do you research to make an educated and informed decision.

Don’t joke vote.

Don’t donkey vote.

Don’t vote just to avoid copping a fine.

If you don’t vote or don’t vote seriously then go donate $100 to a local community/social service org.

Do your research.

Being informed is easy and it’s how we show compassion to others while voting.

Showing empathy and compassion is easy.

Don’t fuck this up.

vote compass - questionaire that asks you about your opinion on policies and current party leaders to give you an idea on where your values sit on an alignment chart

build a ballot - another questionaire, but will take into consideration which electorate you are voting for and provide you with a suggestion on how to number the candidates on your ballot

they vote for you - an archive of every current sitting australian member of parliament, and what they voted for and against

remember, voting is like taking a bus not a taxi. you do not have to agree with every single policy a party is proposing, you just need to vote for the party who is the closest to your values.

vote compass - questionaire that asks you about your opinion on policies and current party leaders to give you an idea on where your values sit on an alignment chart

build a ballot - another questionaire, but will take into consideration which electorate you are voting for and provide you with a suggestion on how to number the candidates on your ballot

they vote for you - an archive of every current sitting australian member of parliament, and what they voted for and against

remember, voting is like taking a bus not a taxi. you do not have to agree with every single policy a party is proposing, you just need to vote for the party who is the closest to your values.