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Thank God For Malcolm Turnbull’s Defence Of People Like Me!!

Mum and dad trucking companies… Mum and dad investors… Dum and mad people using negative gearing as a way of reducing their tax… Well, these people are just awe-f*cking-some!

Yep, I guess that I’m a little prejudiced and that I have a conflict of interest…

To explain:

Every now and then, I’m accused of being left wing because… well, anybody who doesn’t think that Andrew Bolt is a bit of a touchy-feely bleeding heart greenie is far too left for the current government and it’s fellow IPA travellers.

Being accused of being left wing amuses me because I’ve never advocated the overthrow of the system. In that sense, I’m even less left wing than Phil Adams who uses his Radio National spot to advocate for the redistribution of wealth and the introduction of Mao’s little red book as compulsory reading in kindergarten. Oh wait, no he doesn’t do that either.

I’m not left wing. Neither am I right wing. I am, however, about as boringly middle class as you can get. I am, also, a home owner. Well, I’m a home owner in the sense that I own more of my home than the bank does were we to liquify it. I am also one of those Mum and Dad people that you keep hearing about.

Yes, I have negative geared a property!

When I first suggested it to the person doing my tax in 2006, he suggested that there wasn’t really any great advantage because I wasn’t paying a high rate of tax and that the time for negative gearing had passed. I said that when I retired in a few years, my super would be pretty much all in shares and it’d be good to diversify, to which he said that it was entirely my decision and I said that it was also my wife’s but when I started using words like “superannuation” and “diversify”, her eyes glaze over and she gets that faraway look where I start to wonder if she’s still glad that she married me instead of somebody interesting. At this point I have a two minute window where I can say, “Quick sign this and I’ll stop talking!”

Anyway, my negatively geared property has recently become positively geared … Which means that I earn more than I pay in interest and I want to go to the accountant who advised against and say that it was a good idea even if…

Ok, I say all this in the interests of full disclosure. Now for those of you who have continued to read and don’t have that faraway look in your eyes which – if I could see – would make me wonder if you were beginning to think that maybe learning to read wasn’t such a good idea and that you’d be happier if you’d never started reading anything past the time you read the words “superannuation” and “diversify”, I’m about to ask you to consider the scare campaign launched by Malcolm Turnbull from my the perspective of someone like me who is definitely:

  1. A homeowner
  2. A “Mum and Dad” landlord investor… Well, I’m not a mum but I’ve been called a mother in my time.

Ok, now I’m about to launch a few points that seem a little contradictory but after three years of Liberal government you should be used to that. You know the sort of thing. Abbott was just great and he achieved lots but we replaced him because you didn’t like him and no, we don’t just respond to populism, we’re determined to do the right thing even if it causes a drop in the polls… Oh no, perhaps we should bring Abbott back! Wait, I didn’t say that. We promise that Malcolm will take us to the next election and we’ll even let him be sworn in before we launch our coup…

Ok, several points:

First point is that my home will go down in value according to Turnbull, while my rent payments will go up. Now, I presume he thinks that I should be worried by this. Well, I don’t plan to sell my home so whether it’s worth $500,000 or $1.5m is of no real consequence. However, my rent payments going up, why that’s just awesome! I’ll be able to screw an extra few thousand out of my poor tenant. Wow… Do you reckon they’ll double? Because then I could probably pay off my mortgage in no time at all.

Second point is that changes to the capital gains tax should mean that if I don’t sell my investment property quickly, then I probably don’t want to sell it at all. Won’t this mean that there’s a shortage of properties for sale, which should mean a boost to prices in the longer term?

Third point is that I’m a “mum and dad” investor so that means I have children. Or, in my case, one child. According to Turnbull, this Labor policy’s meant to be forcing down housing prices and as I see it, that should be good for my son when it comes time for him to buy a house… Or is he only talking about “mum and dad” investors like Gina Rinehart who’d rather their children went without just to teach them that it’s only by hard work that enables them to become rich. After all, all through her childhood she had to suck up to her obnoxious father who married Rose Porteous and how hard was that…

Anyway, I don’t know why Mr Turnbull thinks that I’ll be upset by his scare campaign. Neither do I understand what he has against investors who are childless. As for those people saving to buy a house, I suspect that he hopes they’ll be upset by the idea that their rent will go up. But it’s also possible many of them aren’t paying rent but living with the “mum and dad” non-investors and they’ll only hear the words “House prices coming down”…

It’s like when they tell us that this’ll mean a wages breakout. Yep, I know that I’m meant to be scared, but part of me is thinking that’s great so long as I’m included and not left behind.

I guess that’s the thing with a scare campaign. You can scare all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot scare all the people all the time.

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17 comments

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  1. trishcorry

    I wish you could be on Qanda tonight to ask some negative gearing questions as a mum and dad investor

  2. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Trish’s comment suffices for me tonight. 🙂

  3. kerri

    Love it Rossleigh!
    The emotive language of “mum and dad investors” is so trite!
    I have some very close friends who 2 years ago bought their son his first house.
    The mum’s advice was skip the first house and buy something that will last a long time because you are going to be paying as much for a first home as for a decent home.
    I asked how much?? 2 mill??
    Her reply “and the rest”
    Yes mum’s and dad’s aren’t always doing it tough as Malcolm is trying to convince us.
    Last Christmas that same mum moved into her brand new modern home with electrically controlled blinds and an infinity edge pool. On the second floor.
    Mums and dads!
    Like Gina or Twiggy or James or Clive?

  4. Ian Joyner

    Mums and Dads – just Liberal weasel words, like John Howard’s battlers. Another of their weasel words is ‘methodically’. Just watch them suck the meanings out of these words over the next 8 weeks.

  5. Julie

    What about single people who want to remain single, We are never on the radar.

  6. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Yes, Ian Joyner,

    just like their abuse of the word ‘reform’.

    Ugly little peasants who have spent their lives to misinterpret what are rich values for ANY Australian.

    I’m a peasant too but I’m far better coz I would never & have never sold my integrity to the LNP bunch of thugs and whores.

    Julie,

    good point. Push your point in The Alliance’s face as one constituent of the future.

  7. bobrafto

    I’m at a point and have been for quite awhile now for every time the libs move their lips, I play ‘spot the lie(s)’.

    One thing for certain now is that lying is in the LNP’s DNA.

    Under Labor negative gearing is still in play but only for new residences for which there are more tax deductions that go with it like depreciation etc.

    Removing the neg, gearing on older properties will just remove the speculators and the artificial prices that they are driving up and things will get back to normal where in a lot of locations property prices double every 10 years or so.

    The smart money will follow the winners of the negative gearing removal and those winners are the companies that engage in new construction and I believe their share prices are starting to rise.

  8. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Congrats bobrafto,

    for spotting the winners who have managed to find investment opportunities.

    Investment ops happen elsewhere too.

    I agree to be very careful of the players with smart money who prey on winners of negative gearing. Not sure if I agree it equates to new construction but we agree 65/35.

    SMART MONEY means much better. It means giving small biz and small investors immediate and good opportunities to explore and be known for their readiness in investment for equitable advantage.

  9. Jack Russell

    I only exist for a few weeks every three years, and then my voice actually matters for the amount of time it takes to fill in ballot papers. It feels like being conveyor-belted into the mincing machine of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, but I always hope for the best result for the people of this country. This time though, Labor need a large majority, and the support of a decent justice-focused Senate, if the damage done by the LNP (past and present) is to be unwound, in it’s entirety.

  10. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    NO Jack Russell,

    NOT good enough. You have an important vote. USE it. THINK how you will use it. THINK how you will encourage others to use their votes.

    The Lib/Lab flipflop duopoly is not the only way to make YOUR vote work best for you.

    Think, Share, Act, Make Reform Happen!

  11. Trish Corry

    In an election this important and with the polls this close – how anyone can advocate to vote for minor or independents over Labor is beyond me. What you are asking for there Jennifer, is (presuming hopefully that the person would be left leaning) is that you are taking a vote away from Labor and possibly costing them the seat. 2010 showed how important every seat is. The QLD election last year showed how important every vote is, with one seat going to the Libs by just 238 votes. Clive Palmer won by 53 votes. Every vote counts. Every single one. If we get another 3 years of Turnbull the country is stuffed. No other party but Labor or Liberal is going to govern. That is what is important for this election. If a choice is to be made it is vote 1 for Labor and then preference below. Hopefully more and more people with put LNP LAST.

  12. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Vote LNP LAST by all means. Preferences are very important, so we can break down the duopoly stranglehold.

  13. Jaquix

    Thanks Rossleigh, enjoyed your article, very amusing. Its become a household joke all this suddden LNP concern for Mums and Dads, and when you see (Buzzfeed) that Wentworth is TOP of the Top Ten electorates benefiting from NG, you can see why Malcolm is particularly looking out for the Mums and Dads of Wentworth. Western suburbs, not so much.

  14. Terry2

    The Member for Faddon (around the Gold Coast) thought he would help out Turnbull and Morrison in distributing red-herrings around negative gearing. Choosing Anzac Day, Stuart Robert tastefully tweeted :

    ‘There are more defence force personnel who use negative gearing than surgeons, judges, anaesthetists and psychiatrists combined.’

    A very helpful analysis from this goose : obviously we are paying our defence force personnel far too much and giving them insufficient to occupy their day beyond speculating on real estate. Alternatively these folk are engaging in dud investments where costs are exceeding income, but the question is, should the average bachelor or spinster – Mums & dads are also engaged in this practice evidently – subsidise that dud investment ?.

    The Grattan Institute noted today that the Commonwealth is foregoing $11.7 billion a year in tax by giving the NG offset and the concession on capital gains.

    Now, I know we don’t have a revenue problem because Morrison has told us that repeatedly, ad nauseam and he has told us that our problem is spending. So, the question : is a tax concession income or expenditure from the perspective of a government. If they take money from people it’s a tax, if they give money to people it’s an expense. So, to rein in Negative Gearing concessions is a cut in spending, right ?

  15. Kronomex

    Yes, Malcolm is all for the mum and dad trucking companies: Linfox, Toll, Logistics Australia, etc .

  16. Steven

    Annabell Crabb is one of the main reasons journalism is going down the drain in this country. she likes talking about politics and all the kudos that entails. But she never ask the difficult questions. Piss off Annabell; your a joke.

  17. Harry.V.Dirchy

    Yes Rossliegh, I thought it to be the Stability and Change of housing policy.

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