Beaches metro, negative gearing crackdown: The surprising policies backed by NSW Young Libs

NSW Young Liberals will propose limiting negative gearing to a single investment property to discourage speculation in housing and boost supply, as part of their annual general meeting over the weekend.

The gathering will consider 13 disparate policy motions, as far ranging as the “proposed elimination of central banking” and the ability for the Reserve Bank to set interest rates, to constructing a 17-kilometre northern beaches metro link from Chatswood through Frenchs Forest to Brookvale.

The two-day AGM comes as the party is at a crossroads at both state and federal levels. Federal leader Sussan Ley has been tasked with rebuilding the party after May’s election hammering, while internal squabbling has erupted among NSW Liberals 18 months out from the 2027 poll.

The policy statement to be moved by James Ardouin, a Woollahra councillor and consultant with EY, is aimed at addressing stagnant housing supply. He argues an outsized investment of the nation’s wealth in residential property has sucked large amounts of capital away from industries that “create real economic value”.

“We have failed as a country to nurture our future prosperity by encouraging speculative investing on the property market instead of backing our best talent and ideas,” hewill say.

Ardouin will say he does not seek to abolish negative gearing but limit the policy’s application to “no more than one property outside a person’s principal place of residence”. The motion was likely to be passed but watered down with amendments, said senior Liberal sources unable to speak publicly because of internal party rules.

“I believe that this reform accomplishes what the initial genesis of negative gearing initially sought to achieve by encouraging investment in new dwellings, which will in turn improve housing affordability,” Ardouin will say.

There is no mechanism for Young Liberals’ initiatives to be adopted by the party, and such policy motions often go nowhere. But as the Liberals seek to re-engage with Millennials and Gen Z voters, cultivating new policies to address the nation’s housing crisis will be paramount.

Cooper Gannon, husband of Sky News host Freya Leach and staffer for NSW Liberal frontbencher Chris Rath, will take the reins as Young Liberals president.

A separate policy called for the land tax policy, rescinded by the Labor government, to be reinstated. It called for the policy to be set at 0 per cent in areas to attract business and economic growth, while maintained on investment properties.

The northern beaches metro proposal would serve as a “housing catalyst”, according to the agenda, creating an upzoning corridor for medium-density through Forestville to Dee Why.

After that motion, Young Liberals will consider phasing out the Reserve Bank of Australia as the “lender of last resort”, removing its power to manage money supply.

Also up for debate on Saturday will be recognising the “importance of immigration to our sea-locked nation”, support for a limited trial of pill-testing services that “that empowers individuals with accurate information without condoning illicit drug use”, along with harsher punishments for youth crime.

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