Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers have defended an ambitious budget aimed at 'levelling the playing field' for younger Australians, despite breaking a key election promise. Both appeared on Sunrise on Wednesday after announcing a federal budget that has drawn criticism for gutting negative gearing, which Labor promised it would not touch during last year's election campaign.
Albanese defends policy backflip
Albanese said the government was not attempting to spin the policy backflip and would own up to the sudden change of heart. 'We have changed our position. I'm upfront about that and we'll own that,' he said. 'We've been throwing everything at housing supply and addressing what is the biggest issue, I think, facing younger generations: the issue of housing. What has changed is that increasingly it became obvious that everything that we were doing was not enough.'
Details of the changes
Negative gearing will be limited to new resident property builds, and the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount will be replaced by inflation-adjusted indexation. The changes affect already-built homes sold after July 1, 2027, meaning newly built properties and those already being negatively geared are not affected. The government projects the change will help 75,000 Australians become homeowners in the next decade.
Treasurer's stance
Chalmers echoed the PM's stance, saying he is 'not pretending ... the policies that we announced last night are consistent with the views that we'd held in the past.' He added, 'We've come to this different view, I think, for the best possible reasons. That is, too many people, particularly young people, are being locked out of the housing market.' The treasurer also confirmed changes to negative gearing had only been 'decided in the usual way late in the budget process.'
