Anthony Albanese has dodged questions on whether he intends to change negative gearing and capital gains tax regulations after an explosive report revealed Labor has asked for modelling on potential changes. 

Nine newspapers revealed on Wednesday the federal government has sought advice from the public service on a possible shift in housing policy, citing senior sources.  

Speaking at a press conference in Tasmania, the Prime Minister refused to confirm or deny any planned changes to negative gearing after he was probed about the matter.

‘I have seen those reports, and what we do is we value the public service. So from time to time, I’m sure the public service are looking at policy ideas, that’s because we value them,’ he said.

Mr Albanese also would not be drawn on whether or not his government asked Treasury for modelling.

‘I didn’t confirm that. Treasury, I’m sure like other departments, do a range of proposals, policy ideas. I want a public service that is full of ideas,’ he said. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday confirmed his department was examining possible policy changes including negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. 

‘Treasury looks at all kinds of policy options all of the time,’ he told reporters.

‘It’s not unusual for the public service, and in my case my department, to examine issues that are being speculated about in the public or in the Parliament, that’s how a good public service operates.’ 

A separate ALP source confirmed that negative gearing changes were being considered, but the government could still decide not to move forward with any policy shift ahead of the next election, due by May 2025.

Negative gearing policies allow property investors to claim tax deductions when the costs of owning and maintaining their investment properties, such as loan interest and maintenance expenses, exceed the rental income they earn from them. 

This tax benefit can reduce the property investor’s taxable income and is used by investors to lower their tax bills.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten’s plan to get rid of negative gearing contributed to him losing the ‘unloseable election’ to Scott Morrison in 2019. 

When Mr Albanese took over, he said changes to negative gearing were off the table. 

In interviews last week, Mr Albanese was asked repeatedly if Labor would consider changes to negative gearing, and at no point did he rule it out.

‘I don’t answer those sorts of questions,’ he said on ABC Radio National last Thursday. 

But two days before that, he publicly made reference to a claim from the Property Council of Australia that changing negative gearing would hurt housing supply.

‘So that is one of the reasons why we’re very cautious about that,’ he told ABC Radio Sydney.

Being ‘cautious’ is not ruling something out, though, and one Labor official said: ‘This is what Labor needs and wants – they need to have a fight on policies that shows what they stand for.

‘It’s in the values frame. This is why Albo was reticent about ruling it out the other day. Look at what Albo has said, he has not knocked it on the head.

‘This will give the government something big and positive to talk about, it will be a major talking point in the campaign.’

Governments often request policy evaluations from Treasury officials without intending to follow through with changes.  

However, according to the official, the modelling suggested that Labor was gearing up to present changes before the upcoming election.

Labor requested similar modelling from the bureaucracy before changing the Coalition’s Stage Three tax cuts earlier this year. 

And, as Daily Mail Australia political editor Peter van Onselen pointed out in July, the Greens want to abolish negative gearing. 

That would make such a move even more likely if Albanese’s Labor party was forced into minority government. 

Simon Birmingham, the leader of the Opposition in the Senate said it was a case of Labor ‘saying one thing on tax policy but looking at doing another’.

‘They’re running the same tricky language. (They’re saying) we have no plans, no intentions in relation to negative gearing.” 

‘Yet clearly they are lining up on negative gearing and capital gains tax,’ Mr Birmingham told Sky News on Wednesday morning. 

Earlier this year, one Labor MP said there was broad support in the party for making legislative changes to negative gearing as members are concerned it unfairly benefits baby boomers. 

‘It should not be easier to buy your second and third house than to buy your first,’ the anonymous MP told The Australian. 

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume accused the Albanese government of ‘lying’ over negative gearing.

‘There’s nothing wrong with the government considering anything,’ she told ABC TV.

‘But lying to the Australian people about whether they’re considering it is another issue entirely.

‘As recently as last week, the Prime Minister was … saying that … questions whether the government was considering (changes to negative gearing or capital gains tax exemptions) were not very clever questions. 

‘Yet only this week, we find out there is some secret plan to look at negative gearing.’

However, Senator Hume refused to rule out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax under a potential Coalition government. 

‘We’ll rule out anything that reduces supply and rule out anything that pushes up rents,’ she said.

Conservative political commentator Prue MacSween called out the potential changes. 

‘This tells you how ignorant and economically illiterate they are. It appears they have been cornered and spooked by the Greens slime fools who are staging a witch hunt on mums and dads who have bought a flat or house investment, and are providing much-needed rental properties to secure their retirement.

‘Labor is out of ideas of its own. All Anthony Albanese has to do is remember how well that plan went for Bill Shorten in the 2019 election. What housing crisis? I see dumb people.’