‘Need to do more’: PM pleads case for budget tax change
The Prime Minister shrugged off calls for a pause on controversial tax changes, saying first home buying schemes alone were not enough to enable more people to buy their own property.
The federal parliament continues to debate upcoming tax changes that will limit negative impacts on new properties from July 2027 and impose a 50 percent reduction in capital gains tax to a rate linked to inflation.
The government said the changes would help 75,000 more people into their first home within a decade.
Anthony Albanese said the measures were necessary despite resistance from the coalition and business groups because previous approaches to increasing homeownership alone were not enough.
“We also know we need to do more. We need to do more, because even with all these programs, we still weren’t doing enough,” he told parliament on Wednesday.
“Many young people will tell the story of attending an auction on Saturday and being outbid by someone who had a partner in the auction, who was an investor, and the partner was all Australian taxpayers.
“If they’re in a bidding war at an auction, the investor knows that if they go for $20,000 more then that’s going to be tax deductible, if they’re going to negatively impact that property, that’s something that’s out of reach for a first home buyer.”
Parliament will sit through the night to debate the changes ahead of a vote in the lower house on Thursday.
Although the legislation will pass the House of Representatives, its future remains uncertain as the coalition has vowed to vote against it and the Greens have yet to signal whether they will support the measures.
There will be a brief Senate inquiry into the tax measures in late June and will be sent to the upper house for debate.
Independent MP Allegra Harcama said the changes were passed through parliament very quickly.
“It shouldn’t be rushed like this. The government can’t say this is one of the most important tax reforms in the last 25 years and then pass it through parliament,” he told Sky News.
“Pause, breathe, look at the model they chose, and look at the other models.”
Finance Minister Jim Chalmers tried to allay fears that the measures would further impact the budget’s profitability.
“Treasury’s forecast in the budget is that the economy will continue to grow, particularly due to developments in the Middle East,” he told reporters in Canberra.
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