Australia news live: Julian Hill claims Labor has ‘won the debate’ on housing tax changes; homelessness soars in NSW

A Labor MP has declared victory in the debate over the government’s tax reforms, engaging in a bit of meta-commentary at the end of parliament’s sitting fortnight.

Julian Hill made the comments on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on Thursday.

double quotation mark I believe the government’s won the debate on negative gearing. I believe we’ve won the debate on capital gains tax on property.

And we’re winning the debate, we got a way to go, on removing the distortion that would otherwise be there. … I think we’re winning the debate … Start ups and so on, we are still engaging on.

But I absolutely believe we’ve won the argument about property and giving young Australians a fair crack at the housing market.