Albanese flags move on controversial Australian housing tax

Anthony Albanese has given the strongest indication that Labor may abandon a major investor tax cut as One Nation sets its sights on housing inequality.

The Albanian government has long been rumored to have the potential to reduce some of its lucrative concessions to Australia’s capital gains tax.

Capital gains tax is a tax on profits made after the sale of items, such as shares or property, and is part of a person’s annual income tax. A 50 percent discount is applied if a person holds the asset for more than a year.

Speaking to Nine newspaper on Monday, Mr Albanese confirmed the government was considering policy changes beyond housing supply as Labor faces a resurgent One Nation seeking to capitalize on anger over rising inequality.

“The system needs to work for people,” he said.

“You can’t change that with rhetoric and dividing people, which is part of populist rhetoric.

“You do that by giving people a share of the economy.”

To date, Labor has remained resolutely focused on increasing housing supply to address inequality, including through ambitious National Housing Deal targets.

On Monday, Mr Albanese signaled the possibility of increasing stimulus spending for state and territory governments to meet these housing targets.

“Resilience is also about economic resilience and social cohesion and making sure young Australians understand they have a stake in the economy,” Mr Albanese said.

“And obviously housing is one of the focal points of that.”

A Liberal-led Senate inquiry is currently investigating whether there have been any changes to home tax regulations.

Financial journalist and author Alan Kohler told the committee earlier this year that the tax system sends “a clear signal that capital income is preferred over labor income.”

“I think this is one of the foundations of inequality in Australia,” he said.

He said currently capital gains tax is “over-adjusted for inflation” while income tax is not.

Mr. Kohler told the committee that the 50 percent capital gains deduction was “more than it needs to be to adjust for inflation” and encouraged investment.

In doing so, it increased demand for property and “possibly more importantly, it also increased the amount investors were willing to pay for property”.

Last week, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jim Chalmers said he would be “quite happy” if the headline of the 2026-27 budget was “tax reform budget”.

Radical change to the NDIS

Mr Albanese also hinted that the NDIS plan could potentially be overhauled.

“The NDIS is there to help people who have a persistent inability to participate fully in society, which is something we should value and cherish,” he said.

“Having four in 10 children in a class on the NDIS is weakening.

“That’s not why it had public support, and we need to make sure we maintain public support by making sure it’s sustainable.”

The Albanian government has sought to scale back some aspects of the program, namely support for children with mild autism who would be jointly supported by provincial and territorial governments outside the program under the Developing Children programme.

But this program faced pushback from state and territory leaders who resisted funding the initiative.

The Prime Minister has ruled out testing for the NDIS.

“Eligibility should be about people’s disability and enabling them to participate fully in society,” he told the Australian Financial Review.