McKell Institute CEO Edward Cavanough is available for interview to discuss the Government's reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
The McKell Institute lit the path to the Government's negative gearing and CGT reforms.
The McKell track record on the Budget's reforms:
In 2015, McKell published Switching Gears: Reforming negative gearing to solve our housing affordability crisis. The paper rejected the binary "keep it or scrap it" debate, instead proposing that existing investors be grandfathered and future negative gearing be restricted to newly built housing to drive supply.
In 2025, McKell published Harnessing Aspiration which proposed a tiered reform of the CGT discount: lifting it for new attached dwellings and reducing it for existing detached stock. McKell modelled the package as capable of delivering up to 130,000 additional homes by 2030 without affecting the budget bottom line.
Quotes from Edward Cavanough, chief executive, McKell Institute:
"This Budget is a vindication of pragmatic, evidence-led reform. For a decade, we've argued the answer to the housing crisis isn't to fight a moral war over negative gearing and capital gains tax, it's to calibrate them so they actually serve a national objective. The Government has done that.
"This is the most significant housing tax reform in a generation. It protects existing investors, it harnesses the aspiration of everyday Australians who want to invest in property, and it channels capital toward the new supply the country desperately needs.
"The country has been stuck in a stalemate on housing tax for too long. This Budget shows what's possible when policy is designed around supply outcomes rather than ideological posture."
Contact details:
Edward Cavanough: +61 423 422 948