Yes. You can own a $1,000,000 house with a $400,000 mortgage. So your equity is $600,000 and your gearing is 40%.
But if you want, you can suck $300,000 out (via refinancing with the bank) and spend it on toys or beer. So you still have the $1,000,000 house but now your debt is $700,000 and the gearing 70%. That's a fair bit of interest now.
That's the QF deal as I understand it. At least the interest payments are tax deductable, although that shouldn't impress the citizens of Australia. And you can argue it's not always wise to suck out your equity and spend it on toys.... You might need to inject the equity back in one day when the going gets tough....