Federal Election 2025: Treasurer Jim Chalmers rules out negative gearing reform following leaders’ debate

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers have denied Labor is preparing to make changes to negative gearing, following questions at a press conference in Brisbane on Thursday.

The issue re-emerged during Wednesday night’s leaders’ debate on the ABC, when Mr Albanese said he had not commissioned Treasury modelling on the potential economic impact of changes to the policy.

His response prompted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to laugh and accuse him of lying.

“You’ve had the Treasury do the work. That is a lie,” Mr Dutton said during the debate.

The accusation appeared to relate to comments made by Dr Chalmers last year, in which he suggested Treasury had previously provided advice on negative gearing.

Opposition campaign spokesman James Paterson also criticised the Prime Minister’s remarks, accusing Mr Albanese of making a “bold-faced lie” after the debate.

On Thursday, Mr Albanese was asked at his Brisbane press conference by a reporter: “How can you say that . . . no modelling was commissioned?”

The Prime Minister referred the question to the Treasurer.

“When it comes to negative gearing, we have made it very clear that that’s not something that we are proposing,” Dr Chalmers said.

“We have got a housing policy. It’s not in that. We got a tax policy. It’s not in that.

“Now, when it comes to the advice we get from the Treasury Department, I said last year when you asked me lots of times, I said last night when some of you asked me lots of times . . . that from time to time we get advice from the Treasury on issues that are in the public domain.

“There is a difference between commissioning modelling, which is what the PM was asked about last night, and getting advice from the Treasury.

“In this case, that’s an important distinction.

“So, what makes what the PM said last night, what I said last night, and what I said last year, consistent is that we have been very upfront, we have said all along that from time to time we get advice, we get views from the Treasury.”

In Mr Dutton’s response to the same negative gearing question at the debate, he argued scrapping it would harm renters by reducing housing investment.

Labor has repeatedly ruled out changes to negative gearing in this term of government, and says the policy does not form part of its election platform.