{"id":688967,"date":"2026-05-23T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688967\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:46:09","slug":"anthony-albanese-visibly-emotional-after-defending-labors-capital-gains-tax-and-negative-gearing-changes-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688967\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese visibly emotional after defending Labor\u2019s capital gains tax and negative gearing changes | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A visibly emotional Anthony Albanese<\/a> has launched an impassioned defence of Labor\u2019s proposed changes to negative gearing, the capital gains tax discount and family trusts, saying he will \u201cnot allow Australia to become a country where aspiration is only for some\u201d.<\/p>\n

The prime minister has faced sustained criticism to the reforms<\/a>, which include limiting negative gearing to new-builds while grandfathering existing properties, changing how CGT is calculated and imposing a new 30% minimum tax on discretionary trusts.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has reported some of his own MPs are wary<\/a> scare campaigns could \u201cget out of hand\u201d unless Albanese and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, begin providing a clearer explanation of the tax changes.<\/p>\n

At Victorian Labor\u2019s state conference<\/a> on Saturday, Albanese said the reforms were \u201cthe right thing to do, not the easy thing\u201d and would rebalance the housing market toward first home buyers instead of property investors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said every Saturday, young people were \u201cmissing out\u201d at auctions because they were bidding against investors who had the \u201cAustralian taxpayer on their side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the tax breaks that are there, it\u2019s not an equal process,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if it\u2019s a matter of an extra $20,000 to bid or $30,000 to bid, they know that they can do that in the comfort that that will be an increase in their tax deduction, that all of you and every Australian taxpayer is their partner here.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you\u2019re trying to buy your own home, you don\u2019t have that, and that is why, put it simply, we are reforming negative gearing and capital gains.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was at this point in the speech party members and unions gave Albanese a standing ovation, with the prime minister appearing to well up at the response.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

He went on to say \u201cLabor is the party of aspiration\u201d \u2013 a direct rebuke of criticism, including from the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, that the budget was a \u201cwar on the self-starters and small businesses\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not allow Australia to become a country where aspiration is only for some. Our reforms are about backing aspiration for all, bringing the great Australian dream of home ownership back in reach for a new generation,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur changes are pro-aspiration, and pro-supply, so we can help people get into a home of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albanese said the changes \u201cadd up to a better tax system\u201d, particularly for people who \u201cwork their guts out for a wage\u201d and \u201cwill never be able to access a trust\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have never sat around the kitchen table and thought of setting up a trust. I mean, seriously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest investment that the majority of Australians ever make, and the biggest hope that they ever have, is to work hard and buy a home of their own \u2026 when you know that the next generation is doing it tougher than my generation, then you\u2019ve got to do something about it, that\u2019s why we\u2019re rebalancing the way that working Australians pay tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Labor MPs told Guardian Australia while they were confident the negative gearing and CGT changes were ultimately good and important, the government needed to do a better job of explaining and \u201cselling\u201d the reforms.<\/p>\n

Another Labor politician worried the government had failed to effectively explain the complex tax changes, lamenting: \u201cI feel like we don\u2019t necessarily have a clear strategy on complicated issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in Sydney on Saturday, the energy minister, Chris Bowen, denied the government had underestimated the blowback to the reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was always going to be a controversial budget,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been undertaking big tax reforms, there\u2019s always going to be – some people are upset by that. The government knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said the changes were important for intergenerational equity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, that will sometimes be controversial, but big reforms are controversial and they\u2019re worthwhile,\u201d Bowen said.<\/p>\n

Across town in Caulfield, the federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, addressed the Victorian Liberal state council meeting, where he described the budget as \u201can attack on young Australians\u201d and \u201can assault on aspiration\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will crush the \u2018reward for hard work\u2019 spirit that underpins our nation\u2019s success,\u201d Taylor said, as he reaffirmed his commitment to repeal the proposed reforms<\/a> if elected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A visibly emotional Anthony Albanese has launched an impassioned defence of Labor\u2019s proposed changes to negative gearing, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-688967","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\/688967","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=688967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}