The Prime Minister said in his “largest” speech ahead of next Tuesday’s budget, that "the equation has changed. Fundamentally”. Yet he’s only offering feel good soundbites rather than fundamental reform.
The PM cited “resilience” on nine separate occasions in his speech, hinting it was some kind of silver bullet for “social cohesion and giving people that sense of ownership over the economy, making sure that the economy works for them, not people working for an economy.”
All the while, he and the Treasurer continue to pit Australians against each other. The Federal First Home Buyer Guarantee gave First Home Buyers a leg up on every other home buyer. Today, the debate on CGT discounts pits asset investors against income earners. These are false dichotomies. We must not allow political spin to get in the way of serious economic reform.
Australians are focused on what they can do to realise homeownership for their families, not jealously fixated on the success or good fortune of their neighbours.
To become a homeowner today, people need two things; a great after-tax income and a big enough deposit.
The deposit receives a lot of attention. Capital markets will solve the deposit problem - that's their role - and there are precedents around the world for affordable low deposit home loans.
With the deposit hurdle removed, homeownership will be largely determined by income and tax. Income tax is the real spectre haunting the Australian dream - a view championed by unlikely bedfellows Allegra Spender, Matt Canavan and Pauline Hanson - but largely ignored by the major parties. For most Australian home buyers, income tax is their biggest expense. It’s taken before any money hits our bank accounts - which somehow makes it feel like it was never ours.
All the while, incomes grow slower than house prices, inflation creeps more people into higher tax brackets where they pay more tax, and national rents are increasing - up 40% in the five years to September last year - with wages up just 17% in the same window. But we’re told - income tax is fair, it’s the capital gains tax exemption that is fuelling the haves and have-nots of homeownership.
It’s clear that those the income tax system treats as “winners” are losing. At Skip our customers buy the median property in their cities; but to do this 7 in 10 of them need to earn over $200,000. These are the success stories of our economy - the hardworking backbone; healthcare workers, engineers, teachers, carers, tradespeople and business executives. Yet as a household, they surrender $46,000-$60,000 to the government every year. By the time they pay 33 cents of every pre-tax dollar on rent, at most they are left with just 37- 46 cents to cover groceries, health insurance, utilities and saving for a deposit.
We should give families the option to be taxed jointly. Simple, uncontroversial, and it should have bipartisan support. Our friends in the United States offer a well-established blueprint. For most young Australian families, this will represent immediate and substantial tax relief - right in the parts of the economy we need it most - people looking to build families. The second and third order impacts are even more powerful, allowing those families to make decisions about having children, returning to work, paying for childcare and a myriad of other household decisions without taxation being front of mind.
The above example should outrage Australian families. Families with the same gross income shouldn’t face a $20,000 swing in take home pay based on how income is split between a couple. Families should be taxed consistently based on how much income they earn, as a family. Similarly, the financial stress around having children will have an in-built release valve, as people know that their effective tax rate will be lowered if they choose to take time off to have children.
How could we pay for it? The belt should tighten first and fastest around Government largesse. Taxpayers are shelling out more than $1m a quarter for the Prime Minister’s travel and communications (ten times higher than his predecessors). The ACIC believes up to $6 billion of the NDIS is fraudulently claimed. The Albanese government - while benefiting from the highest tax receipts - simultaneously registers the largest expenses of any government in history, growing the budget at an eye-watering 16% annually in the last two years. All the while we’re gaslit into believing it’s the CGT exemption that is stopping families from getting on the housing ladder.
If our politicians are serious, as we are at Skip, about unleashing Australian productivity and freeing up young Australian families to become homeowners, they need to do two things now. Firstly direct the crosshairs of austerity on themselves, and secondly reduce the tax burden on our most productive Australians.
