4m agoMon 11 May 2026 at 11:11pm
Claire Chandler says young Australians are also concerned about government debt
(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Shadow Finance Minister Claire Chandler has signalled that the Coalition is unlikely to support any changes to tax settings in tonight’s budget.
We expect the government to announce changes to the capital gains tax, negative gearing and trusts.
Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast, Chandler says the answer to ensuring young people get into homes is to build more homes.
Chandler says changes to tax settings could negatively impact the incentive to build new homes and cause rents to rise.
The shadow finance minister says she believes government debt is also on the minds of young Australians.
“I think there are a lot of concerns in the minds of young Australians. Certainly, access to housing is one of them. But I also think there’s this real awareness now that government needs to be spending within its means.”
18m agoMon 11 May 2026 at 10:57pm
Katy Gallagher says budget will use ‘levers available’ to address housing concerns
(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has continued her media blitz, this time on ABC Radio National Breakfast where she was quizzed about the changes in tonight’s budget.
The finance minister says the budget will be using the “levers available” to ensure younger Australians are “getting a fairer deal” on housing.
Asked if any changes in the budget are because Labor’s housing supply policies haven’t worked, Gallagher says any changes in tonight’s budget will supplement existing housing policies.
“This budget tries to do a lot of things, and one is about fairness. It’s about resilience, it’s about reform, it’s about relief, it’s about getting the budget in better shape,” Gallagher says.
“We also have to look at what’s coming next, and increasingly, younger people are being locked out and feel extremely frustrated with the position they’re in around their ability to become an owner of a house, which many of us grew up in this country believing was the Australian dream.”
24m agoMon 11 May 2026 at 10:51pm
Wilson says changes to tax settings amount to tax on home deposits
Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson says the government is going to “kneecap” the future of young Australians in tonight’s budget.
Wilson says the changes to tax settings in the budget will effectively amount to a tax on home deposits.
“We already have so many young Australians who are saving for a house deposit. They’re investing their savings so they can bring the opportunity and the dream of home ownership forward,” Wilson says.
“The treasurer’s answer is to whack a giant new tax on home deposits, and young Australians are seeing through this, and they’re seeing that this government is their enemy for getting ahead,” he says.
52m agoMon 11 May 2026 at 10:23pm
Chalmers says he expects there to be a scare campaign against changes in budget
(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
The treasurer says there will be an emphasis on the cost of living, housing and inflation in tonight’s federal budget.
On intergenerational fairness, Jim Chalmers says the budget will include “big, bold, ambitious and responsible” steps to “level the playing field” for young people trying to buy their first home.
The treasurer says he expects a scare campaign following the changes in tonight’s budget.
“I would rather spend my time here doing the right thing, even if it’s difficult, than leaving some of these challenges for the next generation to fix,” Chalmers says.
And that’s where we’ll leave the treasurer’s press conference.
55m agoMon 11 May 2026 at 10:20pm
Chalmers says government doesn’t want to ‘kick the can down the road’ on reforms
(ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government doesn’t want to “kick the can down the road” on reforms.
Speaking to journalists at parliament, Chalmers says too many Australians are locked out of the housing market.
The prime minister has said this morning the budget will include changes to tax settings, which we expect will be to negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts.
“We can’t forget the substantive issue here and the main issue here is that too many Australians are locked out of the housing market and the intersection of the housing market and the tax system makes things too hard for too many Australians and particularly younger Australians,” Chalmers says.
1h agoMon 11 May 2026 at 10:14pm
Budget will be ‘ambitious’ but ‘responsible’, Chalmers says
The treasurer has been asked when tonight’s budget will start to make people’s lives better amid higher inflation and rising interest rates.
Jim Chalmers says the budget will aim to help people through the global oil shock and “reform the economy for the future”.
“This budget will be very ambitious, it will be very responsible, and it will take on some of the issues which will lift living standards over time,” Chalmers says.
He says the budget will aim to address housing affordability, allowing young Australians to get a “toehold” in the housing market.
1h agoMon 11 May 2026 at 9:38pm
Governments have responsibility to explain changes to policy, Gallagher says
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has continued her media blitz this morning, this time moving over to Channel Seven.
The finance minister says governments have a responsibility to explain changes to government policy ahead of tonight’s budget.
Labor is expected to make changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing and trusts, despite promising no to change the first two before the last election.
Gallagher has given a strong indication that the government will be making some changes to tax policy.
“When governments change their mind or come to a different view, then the responsibility is to front up and explain why you’re doing that and explain it to the community,” Gallagher says.
“We can’t put our head in the sand, and there are loads and loads of young people … who are increasingly locked out of the housing market,” she says.
2h agoMon 11 May 2026 at 9:02pm
Good morning 👋
Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog! It’s budget day (wooohooo!) which means we’ve got a mega blog in store for you!
I’m Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today’s political news.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down his fifth federal budget 7:30pm AEST in what he says will have a big focus on housing and intergenerational inequality.
The ABC understands Australia’s budget will remain in the red over the next four years, but the deficits will be smaller than those forecast six months ago.
My co-blogger Courtney Gould will bring you all the details from budget lock-up soon after the treasurer steps up to speak in the lower house.
It’s also a normal sitting day here in parliament, so we’ll let you know if any important legislation is introduced or passes parliament.
Strap in for a busy day here on the hill!
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