17m agoWed 13 May 2026 at 12:17am<\/p>\n
Greens senator says NDIS cuts will ‘likely cost lives’<\/p>\n
Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John says Labor’s budget is a “devastating\u00a0blow” for people with disabilities and their families.<\/p>\n
“Labor has cut $37 billion from the NDIS, all while continuing to let gas corporations get away with paying no tax,\u00a0and the ultra-wealthy continue to grow their power,” he says.<\/p>\n
He says Labor shouldn’t be celebrating, as the ultra-wealthy get off scot-free.<\/p>\n
Over 160,000 people will be kicked off the scheme, and the NDIS will be much harder to get onto, ” he says.<\/p>\n
He says the fact that Labor is comfortable handing down a budget that would do so much harm to people with disabilities.<\/p>\n
“We know that these cuts will do harm, we know that they will likely cost lives.”<\/p>\n
He says the Greens will continue to fight the government against these cuts.<\/p>\n
28m agoWed 13 May 2026 at 12:06am<\/p>\n
Trust tax adds pressure to small businesses, says peak body<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
“I think it’s really important to recognise that trusts aren’t just used by high-wealth individuals,” Skye Cappuccio told Radio National Breakfast.<\/p>\n
“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. “<\/p>\n
32m agoWed 13 May 2026 at 12:02am<\/p>\n
Housing and renting advocates welcome changes but say more work is needed<\/p>\n
Housing advocates have welcomed government moves to wind back negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.<\/p>\n
The government expects its negative gearing and capital gains tax changes will slow house price growth by about 2 per cent.<\/p>\n
Labor expects the changes to see an extra 75,000 people purchase their first home over the next decade.<\/p>\n
Everybody’s Home national spokesperson\u00a0Maiy Azize\u00a0says the changes will help first home buyers who are competing with investors.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
But she says she would like the government to have invested more in public and community housing.<\/p>\n
Celia Cartwright from Better Renting says while the government’s changes are “bold”, they don’t go far enough.<\/p>\n
Like Azize, Cartwright says the government needs to invest more in public housing because some people aren’t coping in private rentals.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
35m agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:59pm<\/p>\n
Pocock says government timing on Murphy gambling advertising report ‘cowardly’<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Pocock says the government has chosen to side with gambling companies, rather than the Australian people.<\/p>\n
“They just want to quietly let [the release] slip by and hope people don’t notice,” he said.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
53m agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:41pm<\/p>\n
David Pocock says budget missed an opportunity for tax on gas exports<\/p>\n
Independent senator David Pocock has described the federal budget as “a real mixed bag”.<\/p>\n
He said the government deserved credit for changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing and trusts.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
However, Pocock says not introducing a tax on gas\u00a0exports was a “missed opportunity”, despite the government’s promise to keep a percentage of Australian gas for domestic use.<\/p>\n
“[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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
56m agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:38pm<\/p>\n
Taylor says opposition will fight changes all the way to parliament<\/p>\n
Angus Taylor\u00a0has been asked whether he will support the government’s changes to negative gearing, capital gains, and taxes on family trusts.<\/p>\n
“We will absolutely oppose the changes. It is true that the government has had so much feedback \u2014 and I’ll be kind in that word \u2014 hostility, frankly, towards some of these that they’re already saying that they’re going to do a review.”<\/p>\n
He told News Breakfast the changes were an “assault on aspiration”.<\/p>\n
“They are going to undermine wealth creation and prosperity creation and our standard of living in this country,” Taylor says.<\/p>\n
He says the opposition will fight the changes all the way to parliament.<\/p>\n
“Our aim is to ensure that this legislation doesn’t get through the parliament,” he says.<\/p>\n
“We’ll be working with small businesses, people saving money, people who want more homes to fight these changes every single day.”<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:32pm<\/p>\n
Negative gearing changes could increase home ownership, says expert<\/p>\n
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\u00a0senior associate in housing and economic security.<\/p>\n
“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,”\u00a0Matthew Bowes\u00a0told NewsRadio.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:18pm<\/p>\n
Gallagher says budget balances capital gains tax<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says budget changes to capital gains tax discounts are in the national interest.<\/p>\n
Speaking on ABC Radio Canberra, Gallagher says she thinks the government has got the balance right.<\/p>\n
“Yes, there’ll be people\u00a0who 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
She said the current capital gains arrangements had locked young people out of the housing market.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:06pm<\/p>\n
Treasurer says housing policy will put downward pressure on rents<\/p>\n
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the treasury modelling shows rent will increase by about $2 a week but only under the two tax changes.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Channel Nine, Chalmers\u00a0says overall, the government’s housing policy in the budget will put downward pressure on rents.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“It would be worse for home buyers and particularly for younger people if we left these arrangements unattended.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 11:02pm<\/p>\n
NDIS reform is needed, says former minister Shorten<\/p>\n
Former NDIS minister Bill Shorten says the NDIS was “never meant to be the only lifeboat in the ocean”.<\/p>\n
The federal government plans to make $37.8 billion in savings over the forward estimates from the NDIS.<\/p>\n
“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\u00a0Radio National Breakfast.<\/p>\n
Shorten says he hopes the scheme reforms can work as promised.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
He also says it’s important to clamp down on NDIS rorts.<\/p>\n
“We started that in the first term. There’s people now in jail because of our clampdown, and the government’s continuing that work.”<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:56pm<\/p>\n
The bells are ringing \ud83c\udfb6<\/p>\n
The sweet sound of the parliamentary bells is ringing once again to signal the resumption of parliament this morning.<\/p>\n
We’ll be keeping our eye on both houses of parliament to see if the government introduces any legislation.<\/p>\n
Stay with us as we take you through the day after the budget!<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 12 May 2026 at 10:48pm<\/p>\n
Albanese says tax changes will contribute to ‘boosting’ housing supply<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the tax changes announced in the federal budget will help boost housing supply.<\/p>\n
![\"Caitlin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lcimg-f2bceeb4-768c-4eaf-9719-5c910ec5a120.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Josie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lcimg-db49cd08-0ed9-43c2-8b1f-e5ad31813072.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Joshua](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lcimg-7943bb68-2817-4d03-942e-fbda568bd521.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n