Negative Gearing a Positive for Coalition, Attorney-General Says
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Negative gearing a positive for Coalition, Attorney-General says ANDREW BURRELLFollow @AndrewBurrell7 Attorney-General Christian Porter with his wife Jennifer and children Lachlan, 3, and Florence, 9 months, at Yanchep yesterday. Picture: Colin Murty 12:00AM JANUARY 14, 2019 Liberal frontbencher Christian Porter has issued a rallying cry to his Coalition colleagues, claiming voters in his mortgage-belt electorate are deeply worried about Labor’s plan to curb negative gearing and this could be a ticket to his and the government’s survival. The Attorney-General, who is facing a struggle to retain his seat of Pearce in Perth’s far north, said he was energised by the upcoming election campaign and believed Bill Shorten’s negative gearing policy would be the single biggest issue in his electorate and many others. Mr Porter, who played down the impact of the government’s leadership chaos, cited Scott Morrison’s GST fix, which will deliver $4.7 billion in extra revenue to Western Australia over eight years, as another reason he could win Pearce. “I found the mood changed in my electorate almost instantly (after the GST announcement in November),” the Attorney-General said. But Mr Porter admitted he faced a challenge to remain in politics given he was being targeted by activist group GetUp, along with Labor and the unions. He estimated they would spend at least $1 million combined in the campaign to unseat him. On negative gearing, Mr Porter warned Labor to expect “a taste of its own medicine” in coming months in retaliation for its “Mediscare” campaign against the government before the 2016 election. He said the average reach of his Facebook video posts among voters was normally about 3000, but one he posted 10 days ago on negative gearing had already reached 90,000, suggesting it had resonated nationally. House prices in Pearce, and throughout Western Australia, have been soft since the end of the resources boom. “This electorate is aspirational,” he told The Australian in the coastal suburb of Yanchep, 60km north of Perth’s CBD. “People want to see the value of their family home go up, and eventually they want to use the equity created by that value to buy an investment property. “That’s the way they get ahead in this electorate. When you explain to them that they won’t have any of the tax incentives to make it possible to buy an investment property and that in the short term their house price will quickly decrease by 10 per cent, that scares people. If you run policies in this electorate that damage the value of people’s family homes, you will suffer from it.” Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said Labor’s policy of abolishing negative gearing on existing homes would make housing more affordable for younger Australians. He said the 1.3 million people who now access the tax break would not be affected because it would be grandfathered. Labor believes it can win as many as five seats in WA. Other MPs under threat include Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt (Hasluck), Human Services Minister Michael Keenan (Stirling), Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Steve Irons (Swan) and backbencher Andrew Hastie (Canning). The latest quarterly Newspoll analysis released last month showed Labor’s primary vote in WA had increased from 32.4 per cent to 38 per cent since the 2016 election. The Coalition’s vote has fallen from 48.7 per cent at the election to 38 per cent. Mr Porter said he felt better prepared to fight the election after a disappointing 2016 result in which he received a 5.7 per cent swing on the two-party-preferred vote. “The lesson from the last election is don’t let fake news get a quick lead on you,” he said. “If it’s wrong and dishonest, call it out hard and early. And tell voters why they should be worried about the other side.” GetUp last week identified Mr Porter as one of 17 Coalition “hard right” MPs it wanted to remove from office at the election. The group cited the Attorney-General’s instruction to Coalition senators to vote for Pauline Hanson’s “OK to be white” motion in the Senate, his role as social services minister in the “robo-debt program”, as well as the fact he is “touted as a future PM”. Mr Porter said he believed most voters in Pearce would not be swayed by GetUp’s campaign against him. “This is not an electorate where people in their own hearts and minds are tinkering about with social issues,” he said. “People in this electorate care about their mortgage, they care about their kids coming out of school or university and having jobs, and they care about their own jobs.” Mr Porter’s Labor opponent is decorated police officer and mental health advocate Kim Travers. .