The claim

Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer says that Labor's policy on negative gearing disadvantages average earners who rely on salaries or wages.

Ms O'Dwyer said on the ABC's Q&A on May 9 that Labor wanted to allow "people who are very, very wealthy" to use negative gearing by deducting property rental income against other investment income.

"The average income earner who relies on a salary or a wage won't be able to do that," she said.

Sorry, this video has expired Watch Kelly O'Dwyer make the claim on ABC's Q&A.

"And two-thirds of people who negatively gear, two-thirds of people, have an income of around about $80,000 or less and that is more than 47,000 teachers who negatively gear, more than 40,000 nurses and midwives negatively gear."

Fellow panellist Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, tried to interrupt Ms O'Dwyer, saying: "That is the taxable income."

After Ms O'Dwyer finished speaking, another panellist, Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh said: "The $80,000 figure is taxable income, in other words that's the income after we've taken account of negative gearing."

Ms O'Dwyer said "yeah", but did not amend her claim, responding to Mr Leigh: "But your policy favours the wealthy."

Are two-thirds of negative gearers average salary or wage earners on incomes of $80,000 or less? ABC Fact Check investigates.

The verdict

Ms O'Dwyer is exaggerating.

Fact Check has previously looked at what negative gearers earn in checking a claim made by Treasurer Scott Morrison in March this year.

The data shows 56 per cent of people who use negative gearing have an income of $80,000 or less.

Fifty-six per cent of Australians who negatively gear earn $80,000 or less per year before their income has been reduced by negative gearing, but this figure drops to 33 per cent for those who earn under the median income of around $52,000. ( ABC Fact Check )

Taxable income v total income

A similar claim has been made several times by Mr Morrison in the House of Representatives in February and again in the budget speech this month,

However, unlike Ms O'Dwyer, he said that two thirds of negative gearers have taxable incomes less than $80,000.

In relation to Mr Morrison's claim, Fact Check found that analysis of ATO statistics showed that 67 per cent, or two thirds, of the people who use negative gearing have taxable incomes of $80,000 or less.

That is not surprising given that 82 per cent of all taxpayers have taxable incomes below $80,000.

But that this large category represents only 67 per cent of negative gearers, indicates that negative gearing is disproportionately used by taxpayers with higher incomes.

Put another way, only 8 per cent of people with taxable incomes less than $80,000 use negative gearing, compared with 18 per cent among people with taxable incomes above $80,000.

But looked at before negative gearing reduces their total income, 56 per cent of people who negatively gear have a total income of less than $80,000.

'Average' income earners

The context for Ms O'Dwyer's claim on Q&A was that Labor's policy would disadvantage "average income earners who rely on a salary or wage".

In relation to Mr Morrison's claim, Fact Check found that while average male full-time earnings are about $82,000 a year, the most recent ABS data shows that the median annual cash earnings for all earners, male and female, full-time and part-time, was $52,052.

The ATO statistics show that those with a total income of $52,000 a year or less represent 59 per cent of all taxpayers.

Only 4 per cent of these people use negative gearing.

Before negative gearing reduces their income, around 33 per cent of people who use negative gearing have a total income less than $52,000.