At the time we surmised that housing affordability and taxation arrangements for housing were going to be key issues in the upcoming Federal election campaign. That certainly was the case. Not a single day went by without coverage in the media and parliamentarians on both sides of Parliament were debating the issue. The high and consistent level of media coverage, including front page, together with the commentary and debate beneath the REIA’s daily posts confirmed the importance of the issue of property taxation as a major election issue. You are aware that the social media campaign that REIA was going to take of daily postings of short videos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and in a similar campaign in 2016 we reached an average audience of 120k per week achieving a total reach of almost 1 million people. Without doubt, millions of Australians were unaware of the proposal to restrict negative gearing and to double capital gains tax before the election was called, or what the impacts of such a change could mean for the economy. At the end of the campaign the 2016 figures were shaded by those for 2019. The response had been excellent with a reach of nearly 11 million interactions or over 2 million per week of the campaign. The campaign became particularly nasty during the final week with a number of comments on social media being quite distasteful. Out of respect for the passing of Bob Hawke, at that time we decided to cease running any further campaign material. REIA was greatly assisted by its state based member Real Estate Institutes and a large number of franchise groups in sharing REIA’s message through their networks and agency databases. This was instrumental in achieving the results and I thank you for your involvement. Whilst it is impossible to be definitive on the impact of the campaign it is clear our campaign played an influential role in the election outcome. With only 80% of all votes counted at the time of writing, there is a clear correlation between marginal electorates with high numbers of investment property owners and a higher swing towards the Government than the national average. The Real Estate Institute of Australia 16 Thesiger Court I PO Box 234, Deakin ACT 2600 Phone 02 6282 4277 I Fax 02 6285 2444 www.reia.com.au I reia@reia.com.au 2 The media have been running commentary about the role that REIA’s campaign played with some even suggesting that it was inappropriate for us to do so and that we were merely serving our own vested interests. To dismiss REIA’s position as one of vested interest is unfair. As a profession we are interested in a strong economy. The property sector is an integral component of a strong economy. All Australians have a vested interest in a robust economy. Our messaging was based on independent analysis and to construe that the real estate profession suffers from falling house prices or higher rents is misguided. It is homeowners and renters that shoulder those consequences. The REIA was, and continues to be, opposed to the policy but we are an apolitical body that does not endorse political parties nor oppose political parties. We have a duty to champion our policies which we will continue to do. I suppose upon reflection, if one wants to make positive change it is important to bring people along for the ride and that was the fundamental mistake in Labor’s policies. They sought to tear down from the top rather than bringing people up from the bottom. REIA has already offered any assistance to the government in formulating potential policy changes and we will make the same offer to the Labor Party in due course. Thank you for your involvement in the campaign. Yours sincerely, Adrian Kelly President Real Estate Institute of Australia