These include broken commitments on power prices, stage three tax cuts, superannuation changes, mortgage costs, and changes to negative gearing or capital gains tax.<\/p>\n
“Why can’t you win an election by telling the truth?” Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell asked Mr Albanese.<\/p>\n
Rather than denying Labor had broken its promises, Mr Albanese acknowledged the government had reversed course but argued the circumstances demanded action.<\/p>\n
“We’ve changed our position. That’s a difficult thing to do. And we understood that there would be criticism of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what we couldn’t afford to do is to sit back and say, well, you know, we’re in a position to do something about this\u2026 but we’re going to just stand still.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on why he took one position to the election before backflipping, Mr Albanese denied that he had a policy not to touch capital gains tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn’t our policy. We have changed our position. Just as we changed our position in the last term on stage three tax cuts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked directly whether he owed voters an apology for “violating their trust”, the Prime Minister declined.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t our position then. I’m not interested in word games, and I don’t think Australian people are either. They will make a judgement,” he said.<\/p>\n
The exchange comes as Labor pushes ahead with controversial tax changes to replace the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with an inflation-based model.<\/p>\n
The government will also restrict future negative gearing to newly built homes from July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese had categorically ruled out the possibility of touching negative gearing<\/a> or capital gains tax before the election.<\/p>\n He used his keynote address at the economic forum to argue that the government could no longer tolerate the housing crisis.<\/p>\n “The changes the Howard government made in 1999 to capital gains tax were supposed to boost investment in the share market,” he said.<\/p>\n “Instead, they turbo-charged property as an investment vehicle. Since 1999, house prices have risen by over 400 per cent. More than twice as fast as average incomes.”<\/p>\n However, Mr Albanese gave no explanation as to why he was stripping the capital gains tax discount on all assets, rather than limiting it to housing.<\/p>\n The Labor government will get an extra $77 billion in net extra tax over 10 years from the tax changes, but will still run up budget deficits of $150 billion over just five years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re running less deficits than the ones that we inherited,\u201d Mr Albanese said, referencing the Morrison government\u2019s spending during the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n Labor has sought to frame the reforms as a housing supply measure rather than a tax increase, preserving negative gearing for new housing developments.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese said alternative proposals, including limiting negative gearing to a set number of properties, had been rejected because they would not increase supply.<\/p>\n “We very consciously have a policy of new builds because that’s what drives supply,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Albanese also rejected suggestions that former Labor prime minister Paul Keating had played a decisive role in shaping the budget.<\/p>\n It\u2019s understood Mr Keating met with Mr Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in the lead-up to the budget, and encouraged the tax changes.<\/p>\n “This is my budget in 2026. He supports what we have done, but we make our decisions in 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n![\"Albanese](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/92b42e34310a0b596dd7c4bccf06fd28.jpeg\")
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