Alan Kohler fixes Australia - Housing, AI, Childcare & Energy

**Alan Kohler** (0:00)
I do think that property is a bad investment now. Housing has to stop being the way that people build wealth. One of the problems is that we don't tax enough.

**Rene** (0:07)
Okay.

**Alan Kohler** (0:07)
Equity Mates.

**Bryce** (0:09)
Welcome to another episode of Equity Mates, a podcast where we explore what's possible in the world of investing. If you've just joined us for the very first time, we have a huge episode for you today. My name is Bryce.

**Rene** (0:20)
And I'm Rene, and today we are talking to the one and only Alan Kohler. Now, Bryce, Alan Kohler, for a lot of Australians, is a staple of the news and finance growing up.
Known to many for his work on ABC. Known for his love of charts.
He's a finance journalist with more than 50 years of experience. He's also the editor-of-large at the Intelligent Investor. He started the Eureka Report. He started the Constant Investor. This guy knows financial media.

**Bryce** (0:53)
He does know financial media. That is for sure. We are very lucky to have him here in the studio. We first spoke to Alan 2018 He was the first, I would say, big name guest who actually said, yes, boys, I'll come on your show.
We were super excited.

**Rene** (1:08)
We always appreciate him for that.

**Bryce** (1:09)
We do very much appreciate him for that.

**Rene** (1:11)
You flew down to Melbourne. I was living in Melbourne at the time. Very exciting time in Equity Mates journey.

**Bryce** (1:15)
Again, through a really shitty microphone on the table and got really poor audio quality. But here we are again, lucky to have him, as I said. And Ren, we are covering some massive topics today. Housing, childcare, AI, super. He has pretty strong views on where Australia should be on all of them.
And we're going to pick his brains on it.

**Rene** (1:37)
Yeah, I think one thing that we have noticed is that over the past few years, he's been a lot more forward with some of his views. He famously wrote a quarterly essay in 2024 around Australian housing, really sparked a debate there.
More recently, he's been quite vocal around childcare and some other issues. So we really wanted to get into less the finance and economics, although we certainly touch on that, but also the broader policy conversation in some of these big areas. Now, before we get into it, we want to remind everyone that FinFest tickets are live. FinFest is our biggest event. There's going to be more than 2,000 people at Carriageworks in Sydney on the 24th of October. Five stages, food trucks, bars. It's going to be so much fun. It is our event to prove to you that investing isn't boring, that finance is for everyone. You're not going to want to miss it.

**Bryce** (2:30)
We've already sold over 1,000 tickets, so grab yours equitymates.com/finfest. Link in the show notes to secure yours now.
But with that said, let's get to our conversation with Alan Kohler. Well, Alan, welcome back to Equity Mates.

**Alan Kohler** (2:42)
Good to be here. Thanks.

**Bryce** (2:43)
So we've noticed that you've been more willing to advocate for policy change in recent years, and that's how we're going to frame this whole episode. But has that been a conscious decision?

**Alan Kohler** (2:54)
Oh, look, I think as I get older, I get a bit less patient about things. And I analyze something and I come to the conclusion of what needs to happen. And I say what needs to happen.

**Bryce** (3:05)
Makes sense.

**Rene** (3:07)
Well, we want to cover a few big topics that you've been outspoken on recently. And I think we have to start with housing. And your quarterly essay in 2024, The Great Divide, I think was notable for a lot of people. Two policies you advocated for in that essay, halving the 50% capital gains discount and limiting negative gearing to new homes only. So one person it must have been notable for was the treasurer. How does it feel to know that he's reading your quarterly essay?

**Alan Kohler** (3:35)
Oh, it's good.
I approve of that. Obviously, I approve of the changes in the budget that were announced. I think that they're a good start.

**Rene** (3:43)
Good start, but you want to say more done.

**Alan Kohler** (3:46)
Yeah, more has to be done. I mean, I do think that those things are good symbolic changes. They're not going to make that much difference. They're worth doing. But really what has to happen is a lot more houses get built. That's really what's happening. I suppose the last thing I wrote on the subject was that for the first time since I wrote quarterly essay, I'm now optimistic that housing affordability will improve in Australia. I do think now that firstly, that house prices will fall this year. They're already falling in Melbourne and Sydney. I think that the national average in May was flat. I think that for the rest of the year, we're going to see house prices fall across the country. I think really for the first time, I've got to the point of view that we're probably going to see house prices stay where they are for a long time now for a number of reasons. One is that the house prices, so housing construction is rising for the first time. Not as much as it needs to, but I think that the signs are good. I think that the CGT change and the negative gearing change will have an impact.