Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came under pressure from Sunrise hosts Nat Barr and Matt Shirvington in a tense interview on Friday, as the backlash from the budget continues to mount.
The interview came amid weeks of heated reaction to Labor’s budget, which saw Labor break key election promises by announcing reforms to capital gains tax and negative gearing.
Asked by Barr whether Australians still trusted him after the budget, Mr Albanese defended the reforms, arguing the housing system was “broken.”
“What we’ve done here is do something about it … if you want a negatively geared property, you certainly can, but it’s got to be a new build rather than an existing property,” Mr Albanese said.
Barr challenged the rollout of the reforms, asking whether announcing the changes before consulting the public was “a good way of governing”.
“That’s not what happened, Nat, to be clear,” the Prime Minister interjected.
The Sunrise host continued to press the Prime Minister.
“For 45 days, people have been angry and confused,” she said.
“They have been running to their accountants. They don’t know what’s happening. Do you think you’re out of touch?”
Mr Albanese rejected the criticism, insisting there had already been extensive debate before the budget and that existing negative gearing arrangements would remain unchanged.
“I’ll tell you what’s out of touch. What’s out of touch is saying the housing system is broken, but the government shouldn’t do anything about it,” he said.
“Some of the nonsense and scare campaigns will dissipate because people will be confronted with the reality.”
He said fixing the housing system was worth any political cost.
“There has been a lot of misinformation. Now people have to debate the reality. And the reality is the system was broken,” he said.
“And that’s why I, as Prime Minister, have a responsibility when something is identified as broken, to do my best to fix it, even if there’s a political cost of that.
“My job is to do the right thing for the nation.”
Shirvington said the government was paying a political cost, arguing concerns raised by viewers showed the backlash went beyond political scare campaigns.
“Each and every day people are saying the same thing. Your integrity is dropping, your trust is dropping, your popularity is dropping,” he said.
Mr Albanese dismissed the criticism as “complete nonsense”.
Shirvington then suggested the budget had left the government “unravelling”, asking whether the Prime Minister was frustrated with how it had been handled.
“Jim Chalmers has put you in this position with his budget that every single day looks like it’s unravelling,” he said.
“Every (day) there’s a new campaign about it. It’s not just housing. It’s a death tax. It’s exemptions for small business.”
Mr Albanese defended his Treasurer and denied claims the budget would affect inheritance arrangements.
“Jim Chalmers is doing a great job. And, Matt, some of the things that you’ve raised there are the things that are just not true,” he said.
“We’re making no changes to people’s inheritance arrangements. None. None.”