{"id":580509,"date":"2026-04-02T10:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580509\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:12:13","slug":"pm-flags-tax-reform-to-boost-home-ownership-amid-global-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580509\/","title":{"rendered":"PM flags tax reform to boost home ownership amid global crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has marked out a contentious tax reform package to boost home ownership as a way to counter populism. He is also pledging to rebuild Australia\u2019s fuel stocks and floating the prospect of caps on coal and gas prices if the war in Iran further spikes commodity prices.<\/p>\n

Albanese declared he would put housing affordability at the core of his agenda, giving the strongest indication to date that he plans to wind back the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing. Labor may also announce new supply measures to meet its target of building 1.2 million homes, which it is on track to miss.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyAnthony Albanese at the National Press Club on Thursday.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

Senior sources in the government, who sought anonymity to speak frankly about attitudes in the cabinet, said Albanese had firmed in his thinking to plough ahead with changes to investor tax breaks in the May<\/a> budget. Since the war broke out, some had feared Albanese would back away from tax changes as voters\u2019 mood soured.<\/p>\n

In new language that he planned to use in a January speech upended by the Bondi massacre, the prime minister said the housing market demanded \u201ccontinual reform\u201d and was \u201cour way through this global crisis\u201d, tying it his 2022 election slogan of having \u201cno one held back, and no one left behind\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no security in maintaining a status quo that doesn\u2019t work for people,\u201d Albanese said, as he failed to rule out inflationary cost-of-living relief to shield households in coming months.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"National<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is how we have been able to avoid the worst of the economic and social divisions that have taken hold elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor did not campaign on any changes to property taxes at last year\u2019s election, leaving it open to an attack from the opposition. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has described the proposals as an \u201cassault on aspiration\u201d, but frontbencher Andrew Hastie suggested the opposition should be open to the reforms as the battered Coalition seeks to build support among new groups of voters.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been pushing for the government not to shy away from bigger reforms, and Albanese echoed his language on Thursday for the first time.<\/p>\n

Cabinet has not made any final decisions on the tax reform package, as the war delays major calls until closer to the budget.<\/p>\n

An address by US President Donald Trump, flagging an end to the war in weeks<\/a> but not before bombing Iran \u201cback into the stone ages\u201d, formed the backdrop of a National Press Club speech from Albanese on Thursday, in which he questioned what Trump\u2019s \u201cend point looks like\u201d.<\/p>\n

Albanese said Trump\u2019s claim that the US was nearing completion, which failed to cool markets, was consistent with Australia\u2019s recent calls to wrap up the war.<\/p>\n

\"OppositionOpposition Leader Angus Taylor.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

Albanese failed to rule out more stimulus, days after he adopted the Coalition\u2019s policy to cut the fuel excise. He is facing pressure to counter inflation at the same time as demands grow to protect households from a downturn. Higher government spending, which has been at record levels, would add pressure on the Reserve Bank to hike interest rates, risking stagflation.<\/p>\n

The federal government is preparing to ramp up its diplomatic efforts to secure fuel, as governments around the world scramble to buy oil ahead of a potential supply cliff after May.<\/p>\n

Taylor pilloried Albanese for his Wednesday night televised address to the nation, saying: \u201cAustralians were expecting answers and details [but] they received neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claiming Albanese had shown an absence of leadership, Taylor used his own televised address to argue that Labor had initially denied there was a crisis. The ABC is obliged to offer to the opposition leader their own video message after the prime minister seeks one, as was done when Albanese was opposition leader during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike the prime minister, I\u2019m not going to talk down to you,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAlmost all Australians will do the right and responsible things in this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

After urging people to use public transport in his Wednesday night address, Albanese went further on Thursday and said working from home was a commonsense thing to do, if possible.<\/p>\n

Albanese defended his televised address after receiving several critical questions from reporters, who cited complaints from members of the public that Albanese\u2019s decision to speak to the nation led to more panic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took the opportunity to talk directly to the nation: that is more important than ever because the nature of noise that is out there, the conspiracy theories that are out there,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

The oil shock has exposed Australia\u2019s reliance on imports<\/a> for more than 90 per cent of its oil and fuel, and its lowly fuel stocks that fall below global standards.<\/p>\n

Albanese said that all options were on the table to ensure higher prices for coal and gas \u201cdo not flow into electricity prices\u201d, suggesting Labor could emulate its wholesale price caps last used in 2022 to offset the price spike caused by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Donald<\/a><\/p>\n

He said he was looking at ideas, including biofuels and other new technologies, to increase Australia\u2019s fuel holdings, and flagged investment in revitalising oil refineries.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo strengthen our economic sovereignty, our energy security and our national resilience. To make the most of our resources and make more things here, so that Australia is not always the last link in the global supply chain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With Albanese leaning on Asian partners to continue supplying oil to Australia, Albanese played down the prospect of putting a new tax on gas exports. Unions and independents MPs have been pushing for a tax that would raise billions, and which Labor could use to fund corporate tax relief in the budget.<\/p>\n

Albanese rubbished some of the arguments of advocates who claim gas firms pay a tiny rate of tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as we expect countries that supply us to stick to agreements which are there, we think it\u2019s very important that the contracts that we have be fulfilled completely with countries in our region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"PaulPaul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-580509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}