A senior Labor minister has stumbled through a trainwreck interview about his government’s plans to introduce a ‘sneaky’ death tax.

Sky News Chief News Anchor Kieran Gilbert quizzed the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Tim Ayres, about a new tax on inherited family wealth. 

In addition to reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax, the government will impose a minimum 30 per cent tax rate on certain family trust from July 1, 2028. 

The change targets Testamentary Discretionary Trusts – a common estate-planning structure used to pass inherited wealth to family members after death.

Many Australians had believed the budget announcements meant that an exclusion would apply to all trusts relating to wills and estates.

Gilbert asked Ayres: ‘Has the government introduced a sneaky death tax?’

Ayres jumped on the defensive, instead choosing to respond to Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s official reply to the Federal Budget. 

‘I watched this sort of angry Angus (Taylor) performance last night, and all of this kind of trying to push out hypotheticals,’ he said.

‘Like, it was like Peter Dutton without the smile last night. I watched that interview. Peter Dutton without the charm, just anger, hypotheticals.’

But Gilbert wasn’t letting Ayres off the hook, and pointed out that Testamentary Discretionary Trusts were never on the Budget agenda.

‘Are they in the gun, is the government going to target those because they are essentially a death tax then?’ he asked. 

The Senator, whose portfolio responsibilities include trade, manufacturing, and industry, struggled to answer the question. 

‘Well, we, we have, we have set out very clearly an agenda that, that is, that is really reshaping the property market for young people,’ he said.

‘Like that, that, that is what has happened.’

He then reminded Mr Gilbert that Australians with existing investment properties would be unaffected by the changes to negative gearing. 

Negative gearing will be wound back to only include new builds, breaking Labor’s repeated election promise to avoid changes to tax settings. 

‘If you’ve got an existing property, you don’t need to worry,’ he said. 

‘The mums and dads are older Australians who have invested in property. 

‘None of these changes touch them.’

It comes after Today Show host Sarah Abo asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese point-blank if his government planned to introduce a death tax. 

Albanese said he would not introduce the tax. But Abo continued, asking: ‘But things change, don’t they, as you and the Treasurer have repeatedly said.’

‘No. These are the positions that we’re put in, Sarah,’ the prime minister replied.

Abo hit back: ‘But you’ve also said that things change, so how can we believe you?’

‘We have put forward these changes. We’re being upfront about that,’ Albanese said.

Negative gearing allows owners of investment properties to claim back their costs such as interest on loans, maintenance and rates.

Under Labor’s changes, only those with existing negatively geared properties or who build new homes on vacant land will be entitled to claim their expenses.