Image: Burke, Albanese, Littleproud, Taylor: ABC. Patterson & Tehan: The Guardian
Mr. Tony Burke is a Minister of many things in the Federal Government, he like more than 50% of MP’s owns investment properties like the others in this image. He owns 4 investment properties so he is as good a bloke as any to point the finger at to show how investment properties are used as a tax minimisation scheme for high salary earners.
This article shows how powerful the combination of negative gearing, the 2.5% depreciation allowance and the 50% Capital Gains Tax (CGT) discount, underpinned by rent slavery, is at income tax minimisation and income tax recouping and Mr. Tony Burke will be used to illustrate just how powerful these tax concessions are.
And he is as good a bloke as any to show that he and others like him are happy to have their tax minimisation scheme underpinned by rent slavery which has been a brutal assault on Australia’s working class citizens for decades and now impacts young Australians like never before.
And Mr. Burke will also be used to show why first home buyer working class kids cannot compete with him or any other investor at any house auction whatsoever anywhere in Australia.
From the ATO 2022-23 Taxation Statistics Mr. Burke and the other 2.26 million investors represent just 8% of the population, they own 3.3 million dwellings as investment properties, which is one in every three of the nation’s dwellings and since Mr. Burke like the other investors, lives in a house and not a cardboard box or an abandoned car, with their residence added to their investment properties they own 5.56 million homes which is half of Australia’s entire 11 million housing stock.
Mr. Burke is a snivelling light-weight as a property investor politician with just 4 investment properties, he may have more locked away in Trust Funds, we don’t know but 2 Victorian State Liberal MPs owned 35 houses between them according to the Age article “How many properties does your local MP own?”. David Southwick owned 17 and David Hodgett owned 18 and these dudes may be light weights as well since properties can be hidden in trusts and companies.
And Mr. Burke, the immorality of this tax minimisation scheme that you and your cohorts past and present avail yourselves of with such alacrity is profound. The scheme is underpinned by—ever increasing rent—and has given rise to a class of people who can never afford home ownership and therefore must rent from you— your investment properties—it has given rise to “rent slavery” and if you cannot understand the economic mechanics of this you are too ignorant for your high office and if you do, then you are too immoral for that office.
Negative Gearing
We do not know what Mr. Burke investment properties are worth or when he acquired them so we will assume they are of average value and on this basis calculate the tax minimisation benefits that he legally avails himself of through the use of the Negative Gearing tax concession.
If his properties are worth more than average value then the tax minimisation scheme works better and the opposite is true if they are worth less. In any case the average value house shows how efficient investment properties are at minimising and recouping income tax for high salary earners.
The latest ABS Value of Dwellings Housing Data shows that as at 30 September 2025 the average dwelling price was $1,045,400 and the average rent paid by Australians today is $782 per weeks according to SMQ Research.
Mr. Tony Burke’s salary is in the order of $477,922 which includes his base salary, minister’s loading, electoral allowance and car allowance. Since Mr. Burke is in charge of several ministries he may receive loading or part loading for each of his ministries, this is unknown but to keep it simple, a single ministry loading has been used to calculate his salary.
Assume that Mr. Burke bought all four of his average valued investment properties on 30th September 2025 and that his agent on his behalf charges his tenants rent at the “free market” maximum attainable rate. The further back he bought the properties the better off he is in capital gains.
It makes a difference in negative gearing calculations because the rent slave may now be covering his mortgage repayments in full but sticking with the assumption gives a stark picture as to what most of the governing class are up to.
For a 30 year mortgage term at 5% interest rate with 20% deposit on the averaged valued house the annual mortgage repayments are $53,874, of this the rent slave pays $40,664 leaving $13210. This is the negative gearing difference that Mr. Burke can reduce his taxable income by per house and with four houses he can deduct $52,840 from his taxable income.
With negative gearing deductions Mr. Burke reduces his annual income tax from $181,203 to $157,425 minimising his tax by $23,788. His take home pay with the deduction is $320,497 i.e. about $6,163 per week.
Of Mr. Burke’s $53,874 annual mortgage repayments per house the rent slave pays $40,664 i.e. 75.5% of his mortgage, the tax payer pays $5,944 i.e. 11% of his mortgage and he pays just $7,265 i.e. 13.5% of his own mortgage.
For the Back Bench MP Housing Investors with one average valued investment property things look pretty rosy as well. Their salary is in the order of $306,770 which includes the base salary, electoral allowance and car allowance.
With negative gearing deductions their tax drops from $104,184 to $98,240 minimising tax by $5944. Like Mr. Burke’s contribution to his own mortgage per house the Back Bench MP’s mortgage will be 87% paid for by the rent slave and the tax payer and he or she will need only to cover 13% of it.
Any maintenance costs or agents’ fees or any cost whatsoever associated with owning the investment property can be used to reduce income tax in this manner.
The 2.5% depreciation allowance tax concession
If the investment property is less than 40 years old or has had renovations done on it then the housing investor can additionally to negative gearing deduct 2.5% of the initial cost of the house build and or subsequent renovations from his taxable income e.g. for every $100,000 in the cost of the build or renovation the investor can deduct $2,500 per year from his or her taxable income.
If any of Mr. Burke’s investment properties are less than 40 years old or underwent renovations within the last 40 years even prior to the time of purchase then he can avail himself of the depreciation allowance with the upshot that the taxpayer pays an even greater percentage of Mr. Burke’s mortgage.
Why working class kids cannot compete with Mr. Burke at the house auction
When the working class kids show up at the auction to buy their own home they know that whatever their mortgage repayments will be, they have to pay 100% of them themselves whereas Mr. Burke knows that he will only pay 13% or less depending on depreciation allowance.
Mr. Burke and every other investor have far greater mortgage repayment capacity to push the house price beyond the reach of the working class kids.
In fact Mr. Burke would need to buy 7.5 average valued houses before his out of pocket mortgage repayments equalled the kids with their— just one house.
The kids loose the auction and become Mr. Burke’s rent slaves needing to rent the house off Mr. Burke or any other investor that easily out bid them.
It has been playing out like this since Hawke and Keating.
The CGT Discount—the really big gun
The 50% Capital Gains Tax (CGT) discount on investment property sale profits is where the real money is.
The average valued investment property is doubling in price every 10 years so to keep it simple with little error the yearly inflation is $104,540 that is $1,045,400 divided by 10.
Per year 50% of this increase in value i.e. $52,270 is quarantined off from taxation that goes straight in the pocket of Mr. Burke the moment he sells the property. Of the other 50% this is capital gains taxed at Mr. Burke’s 45c in the dollar i.e. he pays $23,521 in tax on the increase in value at the moment of sale so per year Mr. Burke pockets $81,018.50 of the increase in value or it accrues to him per year which he will collect the moment he sells the property.
This equates to $324,074 with the 4 investment properties which will recover his $157,425 annual income tax paid with much wealth to spare.
Not bad when the rent slave and the tax payer pay about 87% of his mortgages for him.
For the Back Bench MP owning a single investment property he or she recoups $81,018.50 of the $98,240 of income tax on a yearly basis realised when the property is sold. This works out to be $17,221 in yearly tax which equates to a tax rate of 5.6% ($17221/$98240 x100) or 5.6 cents in the dollar. Not bad also since the rent slave covers most of the mortgage.
The 50% CGT discount on the sale profits of investment properties is an extremely efficient income tax minimisation/recoup scheme and has been widely used by high salary earning individuals since it was implemented in 1999 by Howard and Costello and this is what has fuelled the unstoppable housing bubble growth and consequent housing unaffordability crisis for young Australians.
The Member of Parliament led descent into economic madness, housing unaffordability and rent slavery
Since this CGT discount income tax minimisation scheme was implemented investors have purchased 5.1 million homes and resold 3.4 million as at June 30th 2023 that is, the number of houses bought equals about half of Australia’s housing stock with a speculative resale of approximately one in every three houses across the land.
Even more alarming and what ought to alarm the people who govern the country— since the second tax concession, investors along with their personal residences, own or have owned and traded approximately 9.6 million homes, a number representing 90% of Australia’s 11 million dwellings, which illustrates the unprecedented scale of investor demand in the Australian supply limited housing market.
It is clear that the housing investor politician must be voted out of office along with their socially and economically destructive tax minimisation scheme laws—negative gearing the 2.5% depreciation allowance and the 50% CGT discount.
The economic cost of Australia’s manipulated market— excessive housing costs— will be discussed in another article but it must be said that the dependence on increasing immigration for economic growth is a direct consequence of excessive housing costs, this economic madness is unfolding in full view of a beguiled populace that think immigration can be substantially restricted without consequence.
the question is
In this section, “the question is”, questions are asked of members of the governing class that preside over governance of the economy and society at large and who make the governing laws and policies and who ultimately have a profound impact on the life of any given Australian.
Of these people, we have a democratic right to ask questions on governance and we must ask questions and we must insist on answers to these questions otherwise our democracy is on its knees and we are left with no trace of “government for the people by the people” but in its place “government for the political parties, these apparatus of the state for themselves, for lobby networks and groups, conglomerates, media moguls, cronies and the rest by the beguiled and ill informed people”.
Click the “the question” button and you too can ask “the question is” of these people.
The Question is Mr. Burke and this question is directed to Anthony Albaneses, Angus Taylor, Susan Ley, Karen Andrews, Tanya Pliberseck, Allegra Spender, Daniel Tehan, Michelle Rowland, David Littleproud, James Patterson and every other rent slave owning property investor politician— do you understand that your investment property tax minimisation scheme is underpinned by rent slavery—75% or more of your investment property mortgages are paid for by rent slaves?
Do you understand that if these people were not forced into rent slavery by your tax minimisation scheme they would be buying their own home and possibily one of your investment properties?
Do you understand that each time you and the 2.3 million others like you bought an investment property you denied a family of a home of their own or are you oblivious to the fact that there is a housing shortage?
Do you understand that each time you and the 2.3 million others like you bought an investment property you put upward pressure on house prices driving prices out of reach for Australia’s younger generations?
Do you and the other investment property owning politicians have any concerns about the conflict of interest that presents when a Federal Politician is an investment property owner while in Office?
Do you and the other investment property owning politicians understand that with greater than 50% of MPs being housing investors this conflict of interest has ammounted to corruption of the normal functioning of Parliament—why would you curtail the housing bubble or attend to the housing unaffordability crisis as this would be in direct conflict of your interests— and this has played out for years for all to see—and as you know investment houses can be hidden in trust funds so 100% of MPs may well be housing investors rendering the Parliament totally dysfunctional regarding this most fundamental of human need—affordable housing?
Is this corruption of Parliament the reason that not the slightest effort has gone into curtailing the economically damaging investor driven housing bubble that has evolved since Howard and Costello?
Mr. Burke does the Federal Parliament even understand that there is a housing bubble and the extent of risk to the economy and banking system it poses?
Do you and the other politicians think that the RBA has been derelict in the responsibility imposed on it by the Reserve Bank Act 1959, where the Bank “will best contribute” to, item c, “the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia” in allowing for decades this housing bubble to grow without concerted effort to deflate it in a controlled manner or at least warn “the people of Australia” of its existence given the rise in homelessness, falling home ownership rates, housing unaffordability, increasing rent slave poverty increasing mega mortgage poverty, damaged domestic consumption engine, damaged monetary policy effectiveness, the pincered economy where immigration must be reduced for housing supply and build cost considerations but cannot be reduced because of inflation and recession considerations etc. etc.?
Mr. Burke do you and the other politicians believe the RBA Boards and Governors both past and present are economic dunces like yourselves and therefore can be forgiven for not noticing the housing bubble that now threatens the economy and banking system?
Or Mr. Burke, is it possible that like the Federal Parliaments both past and present— the RBA Governors and Boards put their income tax minimisation through investment property ownership ahead of their responsibilities towards what was “best” for “the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia” and just simply turned a blind eye to the rapidly growing housing bubble while they recouped their income tax?
Mr. Burke do you and the other politicians think it best if the RBA finally informs the Australian people that they are in the midst of one of the biggest housing bubbles the western world has ever seen or might it be best to wait until “you all” have sold your investment properties to ill informed suckers?
Mr. Burke and to the rest of the MPs: when MPs, the LNP, Labour or any other interest group or industry bodies state that they oppose changes to negative gearing and the CGT discount, the people who run these outfits are in fact saying to the working class Australian, “Your working class kids are going to be rent slaves for my kids” or does that, like basic economics, exceed the intelligence of Federal Members of Parliament and the people who run these outfits or is this as you lot believe is just the natural order of things?
Do you and the Labour Party understand that any substaantial change to the CGT discount will cause the established housing market to crash— that you will get the blame and possibly never get another vote ever?
Do you and the other investment property owning politicians understand what a shocking economic and social disaster Labour and Liberal and National Parties have dragged Australia into over the last few decades—your greed has slaughtered the “Lucky Country” and plummeted millions of working class people into rent slavery and mega mortgages along with the poverty these conditions impose on the individual?
Do you agree Mr. Burke that economic dunces have no place in any parliament whatsoever throughout the land because of the direct threat to the economy such dimwits pose which begs the question what in God’s Name are most of the incumbents of Federal Parliament doing there in the first place?
Mr. Burke is there a single Federal Politician that is not corrupted by investment property ownership and who understands enough basic economics to be allowed anywhere near the levers of government in the 48th Parliament?
There has been no such person since the days of Malcolm Frazer—one look at the “state of the nation” bears this out, wouldn’t you agree Mr. burke?
Mr. Burke you and the other investment property owning politicians have maintained these tax concessions for the tax benefit of yourselves and just 8% of the population, you have insisted that there will be market intervention by way of the tax concessions beneficial to investors in the investment property market— its mirror image market— the rental market— a market where the governing class insists that it must be a “free market”, a market where a counter intervention like legislated limits on rental charges is disallowed by you— the housing investor politician— from a moral perspective alone— explain how the lack of a counter intervention in the rental market is justifiable?
Or is it just that you lot “the governing class” take it for granted that you are better paid and better than anybody else and can therefore legislate as unfairly and as socially and economically damaging as you damn well like— after all it is only the working class and the less well off you are stomping on and “what are they gonna do about it”— since they do not even know what has hit them?
The Nation needs to be rid of you lot— a new Centrist Political Party is the only way forward, a political party that at the very least sees rent slavery for what it is — the governing class bludging off the less well off — a political party that puts a stop to this odious practice once and for all and only then can the Nation start to rebuild the “Lucky Country”—a place where the unbridled greed of the likes of you and your cohort has no place at all.