Budget 2026 live: Albanese expects ‘blowback’ from budget as opposition says young people ‘kneecapped on multiple fronts’

17m agoWed 13 May 2026 at 12:17am

Greens senator says NDIS cuts will ‘likely cost lives’

Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John says Labor’s budget is a “devastating blow” for people with disabilities and their families.

“Labor has cut $37 billion from the NDIS, all while continuing to let gas corporations get away with paying no tax, and the ultra-wealthy continue to grow their power,” he says.

He says Labor shouldn’t be celebrating, as the ultra-wealthy get off scot-free.

Over 160,000 people will be kicked off the scheme, and the NDIS will be much harder to get onto, ” he says.

He says the fact that Labor is comfortable handing down a budget that would do so much harm to people with disabilities.

“We know that these cuts will do harm, we know that they will likely cost lives.”

He says the Greens will continue to fight the government against these cuts.

28m agoWed 13 May 2026 at 12:06am

Trust tax adds pressure to small businesses, says peak body

Many small business owners will “wake up with a furrow in their brow” over the 30 per cent minimum tax rate on trust distributions, says the chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).

“I think it’s really important to recognise that trusts aren’t just used by high-wealth individuals,” Skye Cappuccio told Radio National Breakfast.

“They’re quite a common mechanism used by small family businesses. And for many of those small family businesses, this will effectively increase the tax they’re paying each and every year. And it comes at a time when they’re really experiencing quite significant pressures. “

32m agoWed 13 May 2026 at 12:02am

Housing and renting advocates welcome changes but say more work is needed

Housing advocates have welcomed government moves to wind back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

The government expects its negative gearing and capital gains tax changes will slow house price growth by about 2 per cent.

Labor expects the changes to see an extra 75,000 people purchase their first home over the next decade.

Everybody’s Home national spokesperson Maiy Azize says the changes will help first home buyers who are competing with investors.

“This is really going to even the playing field for people who want to buy their own home, to live in it. And it’s also going to slow this prodigious rise in house prices that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of decades since the capital gains tax discount was introduced 25 years ago,” Azize says.

But she says she would like the government to have invested more in public and community housing.

Celia Cartwright from Better Renting says while the government’s changes are “bold”, they don’t go far enough.

Like Azize, Cartwright says the government needs to invest more in public housing because some people aren’t coping in private rentals.

“There are too many renters who are struggling to get by in private rental, and public housing provides the price signal and the rent cap that will bring down rents across the sector,” she says.

35m agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:59pm

Pocock says government timing on Murphy gambling advertising report ‘cowardly’

Independent senator David Pocock has described the federal government’s decision to hand down their response to Peta Murphy’s gambling advertising report just before the budget as “disappointing” and “cowardly”.

The government’s response to the ‘You win some, you lose more’ report yesterday outlined several gambling reforms the prime minister announced last month, but ignored a recommendation for a national online gambling regulator.

Pocock says the government has chosen to side with gambling companies, rather than the Australian people.

“They just want to quietly let [the release] slip by and hope people don’t notice,” he said.

“But the crossbench notices and I’ll continue to push on behalf of Canberrans because I just hear from so many people, this is having such a human impact, both on young people with the normalisation of gambling, but then so many young adults who are just struggling with gambling addictions.”

53m agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:41pm

David Pocock says budget missed an opportunity for tax on gas exports

Independent senator David Pocock has described the federal budget as “a real mixed bag”.

He said the government deserved credit for changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing and trusts.

“This is long overdue reform, and I think finally, as a country, we’re starting to say that housing should be more of a human right, something that’s accessible and affordable rather than this asset class, this wealth creation vehicle that’s part of the reason why we’ve landed in this housing crisis,” he told ABC Radio Canberra.

However, Pocock says not introducing a tax on gas exports was a “missed opportunity”, despite the government’s promise to keep a percentage of Australian gas for domestic use.

“[It] doesn’t raise an extra cent from our gas exports and we’re still in the position where the petroleum resource rent tax actually went down by $100 million this year from the projected $1.5 billion to $1.4 billion,” he says.

“Beer excise is still up at $2.7 billion. So that just makes no sense to me, and I think a lot of Australians are pretty angry about the fact that we’re giving away huge volumes of gas.”

56m agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:38pm

Taylor says opposition will fight changes all the way to parliament

Angus Taylor has been asked whether he will support the government’s changes to negative gearing, capital gains, and taxes on family trusts.

“We will absolutely oppose the changes. It is true that the government has had so much feedback — and I’ll be kind in that word — hostility, frankly, towards some of these that they’re already saying that they’re going to do a review.”

He told News Breakfast the changes were an “assault on aspiration”.

“They are going to undermine wealth creation and prosperity creation and our standard of living in this country,” Taylor says.

He says the opposition will fight the changes all the way to parliament.

“Our aim is to ensure that this legislation doesn’t get through the parliament,” he says.

“We’ll be working with small businesses, people saving money, people who want more homes to fight these changes every single day.”

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:32pm

Negative gearing changes could increase home ownership, says expert

The changes to negative gearing on investment properties will see some investors pull out and free up housing for younger Australians, says the Grattan Institute’s senior associate in housing and economic security.

“Previous research that we’ve seen in the Australian context shows that these kinds of reforms could increase the level of home ownership by around 4 percentage points,” Matthew Bowes told NewsRadio.

But he says the changes won’t fix other problems people face in the housing market, such as high rents and a lack of supply in high-demand areas.

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:18pm

Gallagher says budget balances capital gains tax

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says budget changes to capital gains tax discounts are in the national interest.

Speaking on ABC Radio Canberra, Gallagher says she thinks the government has got the balance right.

“Yes, there’ll be people who think this is going too far, and there’ll be people who don’t think we’re going far enough, and we think we’ve made the right decisions,” she said.

Gallagher criticised comments from Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson that the budget will lead to 35,000 fewer homes being built, saying the opposition has no housing policy.

“If an opposition person comes out and complains about housing supply when they actually did nothing about housing supply and helped contribute to the issue that we’re trying to deal with now, that should be called out,” she said.

She said the current capital gains arrangements had locked young people out of the housing market.

“These arrangements needed to change so that we can, in particular around housing, ensure that generations younger than me do not find it impossible to get into the housing market,” she says.

“And increasingly evidence shows that the tax treatment of housing, how it interacts with the housing sector, is making it more difficult for younger people to get into housing.”

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:06pm

Treasurer says housing policy will put downward pressure on rents

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the treasury modelling shows rent will increase by about $2 a week but only under the two tax changes.

Speaking to Channel Nine, Chalmers says overall, the government’s housing policy in the budget will put downward pressure on rents.

“We think we have come up with a really responsible package. We’ve made some extremely difficult decisions to address this challenge in our economy, where too many young people are locked out of the housing market,” he says.

“It would be worse for home buyers and particularly for younger people if we left these arrangements unattended.

“It would be easier politically to leave everything as it is, but we have taken this difficult decision because it’s becoming increasingly clear the longer we leave these arrangements, the more Australians will be locked out of the housing market.”

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:02pm

NDIS reform is needed, says former minister Shorten

Former NDIS minister Bill Shorten says the NDIS was “never meant to be the only lifeboat in the ocean”.

The federal government plans to make $37.8 billion in savings over the forward estimates from the NDIS.

“In the first term we got growth down from 22 per cent to 9 per cent, but that was never going to be the destination. It still had to be reduced,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast.

Shorten says he hopes the scheme reforms can work as promised.

“At the core of the NDIS, it’s changing lives for the better, but it wasn’t ever meant to be the only lifeboat in the ocean. And so, the government’s saying that they want to create more limited services outside the NDIS for people who don’t need the full NDIS orchestra of services.”

He also says it’s important to clamp down on NDIS rorts.

“We started that in the first term. There’s people now in jail because of our clampdown, and the government’s continuing that work.”

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:56pm

The bells are ringing 🎶

The sweet sound of the parliamentary bells is ringing once again to signal the resumption of parliament this morning.

We’ll be keeping our eye on both houses of parliament to see if the government introduces any legislation.

Stay with us as we take you through the day after the budget!

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:48pm

Albanese says tax changes will contribute to ‘boosting’ housing supply

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the tax changes announced in the federal budget will help boost housing supply.

The government projects that changes to the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing will help 75,000 homes change hands from investors to first home buyers.

From May 12, anyone buying an investment property will not be eligible to use negative gearing unless the property is newly built.

But speaking to Sky News, Albanese has refused to say why he didn’t bring the policy to the last federal election, instead saying the government has changed its position.

“What we’re doing is saying to people if they want to invest in housing, yes, you can invest in housing, you can invest, therefore, in your future wealth, but you’re also investing in the nation’s interest,” Albanese says.

“Young people, when they go to an auction, they at the moment have a massive disadvantage … that isn’t a level playing field. The system isn’t working for young people, and that’s why we’re up front that we’re making this change,” he says.

1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:42pm

RAAF to join freedom of navigation operation through Strait of Hormuz

The government says it will send an E-7A Wedgetail aircraft to aid the United Kingdom and France’s Multinational Military Mission to ensure freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says he joined counterparts from 40 other countries to reaffirm the use of collective diplomatic, economic and military capabilities.

France and the UK are looking to establish an independent and defensive Multinational Military Mission, to complement ongoing diplomatic engagement and de-escalation efforts in the Middle East.

The mission has not yet been established, but Australia has committed to contributing aircraft once it is.

Marles says he wants to see the conflict in the Middle East end.

“The longer this conflict goes on, the more significant the impact on Australia will be. Our government is doing all we can to shield Australians from the impacts”.

2h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:31pm

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson accuses Albanese of ‘broken promises’

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson says the electoral consequences for Labor over “broken promises” regarding new taxes will be “horrific”.

“It wasn’t some sort of side conversation. The prime minister was caught on camera, red hot with rage, telling journalists 50 times over in his own words, we are not going to be doing these new taxes,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast.

“He’s now broken that and broken with it, trust in his government, and broken trust with the Australian people,” Wilson says.

When asked if the Coalition planned to repeal the new measures if they got into government, Wilson says their objective is to “make sure we stop them getting legislated in the first place”.

“They’ll lead to fewer homes, higher rents, and higher taxes on first-home deposits. But, if necessary, we’ll take those measures,” he says.

“But what we want to do is make sure that young Australians look to the horizon with confidence and actually believe that they can build a better future for themselves and their families, not just look out to a sea of debt, higher taxes, lower living standards and increasingly broken trust when you have a government that has so nakedly lied.”

2h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:27pm

📷 PM and treasurer make budget pitch on morning TV