Anthony Albanese fronted his Budget interview with Sarah Ferguson on ABC’s 7.30 aimed with one key phrase which he repeated 10 times in the 10 minute interview: ‘we changed our position’.

The Prime Minister was repeatedly questioned about why his government chose to change existing negative gearing and capital gains tax (CGT) systems after promising it wouldn’t.

At the last federal election, in May 2025, his Labor party repeatedly stated it would not touch the two tax breaks beneficial for investors.

However, it made huge changes to both during Tuesday’s Federal Budget.

Ferguson confronted Albanese on the broken election promise on Wednesday, saying: ‘You said on multiple occasions before the election that you would not touch negative gearing or capital gains.

‘How would you describe those statements now?’

Albanese answered: ‘Well, we’ve changed our position.’

Ferguson tried again, pushing: ‘No, how would you describe those statements now?’

Albanese repeated: ‘We’ve changed our position.

‘They were statements that that were made, and that’s why we’ve been upfront that we’ve changed our position.’

The Prime Minister attempted to breeze past the accusation and focused on why his government introduced the changes.

He claimed his party ‘couldn’t sit back and continue to watch young people being frozen out of the housing market’.

But Ferguson continued to focus on Labor’s prior promises not to touch negative gearing and CGT.

‘Were those statements promises?’ she asked.

Albanese answered: ‘They were statements and we have changed our position.’

Ferguson asked: ‘Yes, but are you not able to say that they were election promises?’

Albanese, again, repeated: ‘Well, they’ve we’ve changed our position, Sarah.’

Ferguson summed up the back-and-forth with one statement: ‘You won’t say it.’

Anthony Albanese has delivered an impassioned defence of his government’s housing reforms in Question Time, pushing back forcefully on claims he is denying younger Australians the same tax advantages he has personally used.

Liberal MP for Cook, Simon Kennedy, challenged the Prime Minister directly, saying: ‘The Prime Minister has confirmed he has used negative gearing and the CGT discount.’

Kennedy reference Albanese’s $4.3million holiday home he purchased with his then fiance and now wife, Jodie Haydon.

‘The Prime Minister… has bought a $4million property in Copacabana. So why is the Prime Minister stopping the next generation of Australians from using the very opportunities he has personally benefited from?’

Albanese rejected the premise of the question, declaring: ‘What we are doing is precisely the opposite of the suggestion which he puts forward.’

In a personal response, the Prime Minister tied his housing views to his upbringing.

‘I have had access to home ownership… and I had it in my twenties,’ he said.

‘I had it because my mother, who lived in public housing her whole life, used to say to me, when you get a chance in life, own your own home.’

He framed home ownership as a core aspiration of working Australians.

‘It’s the aspiration that’s drilled into working class people… who want the next generation to be better off than they are,’ he said.

Albanese grew increasingly animated as interjections flared across the chamber from the Coalition.

‘I’m proud that I wasn’t born to rule. I’m proud that I worked hard. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved.’

‘We made sure that we do not want to leave a generation behind… we are not prepared to sit here and know that increasingly young people are being priced out of the market,’ he said.

Albanese stressed negative gearing would remain, but be redirected.

‘People can still negatively gear properties… The difference is they will buy a new home rather than an existing one,’ he said, arguing this would both support investors and boost housing supply.

‘Our idea of helping young people,’ he concluded, ‘is to do something practical that will help them get ahead.’

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has issued a scathing attack on the Federal Budget by blasting the tax reforms as ‘communism’.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers spent Wednesday defending their broken election promises regarding negative gearing and the capital gains tax, Hanson welcomed newly elected Farrer MP David Farley to Canberra.

She used her press conference to mock Labor’s ‘Sheriff of Nottingham budget’ and did not hold back.

‘To me, this is basically taking the wealth from people who have worked hard, and I’m talking to people my age. We were the baby boomers,’ Hanson said.

‘We didn’t go to restaurants and we didn’t have all this. Then we saved, and we invested to create that wealth.

‘I see this as nothing but communism taking over and redistributing wealth.’

Hanson then accused Australians of not wanting to work hard and save.

‘We are not incentivising people to want to get ahead in this country, to go and work hard, save some money,’ she said.

‘The young ones are being helped out very much by their parents to actually help them over that line.

‘A lot of the young ones aren’t getting married, they’re not having children … mass migration has driven up cost of housing.

‘Foreign investment has driven up the cost of housing.’

Hanson also referenced former prime minister Paul Keating’s attempts to scrap negative gearing while he was treasurer under the Hawke government in 1985.

Keating reversed the policy just two years later due to rental market pressures.

‘It didn’t increase housing,’ Hanson said.

‘He realised that it actually destroyed the market.’

It comes after Hanson accused the Albanese government of rewriting the entire tax system.

‘If this is all about housing for young people, then why are all our other assets being included, such as shares, commercial property, industrial property? What’s that got to do with housing?’ she tweeted on Tuesday night.

Chalmers later fired back with a subtle dig at One Nation’s win in Farrer while drawing similarities between Hanson and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

‘When you look around the world, from Farage to Farrer – the choice this moment presents for parties of government is clear,’ he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“We are the last ones standing in the sensible centre of Australian politics but we aren’t standing still.

‘Standing still would make us the reluctant defenders of a status quo that doesn’t work.’

One of Australia’s leading finance journalists has warned of tough times ahead with the cost-of-living crisis set to continue.

Compare the Market economic director, former Sunrise co-host David ‘Kochie’ Koch, has shared his take on the Federal Budget.

Currently at a near three-year high of 4.6 per cent, he fears inflation will get a ‘whole lot worse’, especially if oil prices surge past $100 a barrel.

‘I think we’re going to see some tough years ahead,’ Koch said.

‘If you look in the Budget, the inflation forecast looks as though it’s going to peak at around five per cent in the middle of this year, but it’s not going to get back to 2.5 per cent until 2029-30 – and that’s assuming oil stays around these levels.

‘I think the Budget is a little naive in some of its economic forecasts…it says we’re not going to go into an economic recession – let’s keep our fingers crossed that is correct.’

Koch had this investment advice for Aussies in the wake of the overhaul of negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts.

‘The family home remains capital gains tax free, while the CGT discount is being wound back on other investments, and superannuation continues with its 15 per cent earnings tax and concessional treatment,’ he said.

‘So, tax-wise, by far the best places to invest your money are your own home and your super.’

Koch accused the Albanese government of ‘fiddling around with just one area of tax reform’ in the Budget.

‘There’s nothing there to encourage earning more income, working harder, or improving productivity,’ he added.

‘Australian personal tax rates are still some of the highest in the world. The revenue from personal income tax is still at record highs.

‘Tax thresholds really haven’t been changed at all. So what incentive is there to work harder? We need that to help fight inflation.’

He said that next week’s tax cuts will be welcome relief for Aussies but added they will be quickly gobbled up by cost-of-living increases and future interest rate rises.

Jim Chalmers has mocked a question about the government’s proposed negative gearing changes in the Budget.

Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell challenged Chalmers on his contention that the government’s reforms are on the side of younger generations.

Clennell pointed out that Treasury modelled the changes would increase rents and slow the growth of median house prices by $19,000 – while older investors can still benefit from negatively geared investments.

‘So when it comes to young people in this country, are you really on their side?’ he asked.

‘Or, as young people would say, is it all about getting that bread for the tax man?’

Chalmers’ reply drew laughter from the room.

‘Are you sure young people say that, Andrew?’ he said.

‘You did actually ask the office, and we didn’t come up with much. Maybe we’re all too old.’

The Treasurer then turned serious, outlining what he described as a ‘three-part’ answer.

He rejected claims that the policy would drive rents higher, insisting Treasury modelling showed a ‘negligible impact on rents’, while house prices would ‘grow more slowly, about 2 per cent more slowly’.

On negative gearing, Chalmers emphasised that the rules had been changed, but not abolished.

‘We are not ending negative gearing entirely, but saying if you want to negatively gear in the future, buy a new home… that genuinely adds to housing supply.’

He argued the broader tax changes were designed with younger Australians in mind.

‘We are trying to rebalance the tax system on their behalf.’

Australians will soon be slugged with an increased $80 exit fee when they leave the country under new measures announced in the Federal Budget.

The fee is applied to all passengers departing by air or sea from Australia, regardless of whether they are citizens or non-citizens intending to return.

The passenger movement charge, which is already included in the ticket, will be increased by $10, from $70 to $80, from January 1, 2027.

However its understood passengers who have already purchased a ticket will benefit from a six-month transition arrangement.

The Albanese Government expects the fee will bring in a total of $755million over the next five years.

It comes as aviation industry experts say they expect airlines will pass on the extra $10 in the form of increased airfares.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond described the changes as ‘literally outrageous’.

‘You’re looking at an environment where the tourism industry is wearing an impossibly uncertain global aviation marketplace,’ Osmond said.

‘You’ve got a decimated domestic driving market, which would have been the fallback for a lot of operators, because of the fuel situation [that is making driving holidays less attractive].’

Passengers are seen at Sydney’s Domestic Airport.

Bill Shorten feels ‘vindicated’ after the Albanese government introduced the same tax reforms he tried to bring in as Opposition Leader.

He took plans to scrap negative gearing and wind back the capital gains tax discounts to the 2016 and 2019 elections.

Shorten was tipped to win in 2019 but lost against then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Now a University of Canberra vice-chancellor, Shorten celebrated his 59th birthday as his controversial proposals were announced in Tuesday night’s Federal Budget.

‘It was nice on my birthday to see an idea that I backed come home at last,’ he told Sky News on Wednesday.

‘I don’t like using the word a lot, but I do feel vindicated.’

Shorten is adamant that the policies did not cost Labor the 2016 and 2019 elections, as he doubled down on the changes that have sparked widespread backlash from Aussies.

‘The motivation I had in 2016 was that I could see that younger people, first-time buyers, were being locked out of the market by distortions caused in the tax system,’ he explained.

‘And we had a sensible policy of not changing the rules for people who have already invested, but I wanted to give younger homebuyers a chance to have that great Australian dream.

‘I see it every day at the University of Canberra – the graduates, they can get a job, but they’ve got student debt and they don’t ever think they’ll own a house.’

Shorten conceded that he recently took advantage of the current negative gearing laws when he relocated from his hometown of Melbourne to the nation’s capital for work.

He also admitted to Sky News host Laura Jayes that he has benefited from a policy that he thinks is unfair in doing so.

‘I moved,’ he said.

‘There would be a revolution if, retrospectively, the government didn’t grandfather the position.

‘In 2016 and 2019, I never negatively geared myself, but I wasn’t going to change the tax rules for people.

‘If you retrospectively change tax laws that would be a bad law.

‘What I say is that the law needs to change.’

Shorten had this advice for those slamming the changes.

‘What I would really say to the people who think somehow that this is bad news is that it was a good idea 10 years ago and it’s an even better idea now,’ he said.

Commonwealth Bank chief economist Luke Yeaman has predicted house prices will fall by three per cent in response to Labor’s tax reforms.

House prices could fall because the Budget reduces tax incentives for property investors, lowering demand and easing upward pressure on prices.

Economists have long argued tax breaks like negative gearing and the CGT discount have boosted investor demand and pushed prices up.

‘In our view, it is going to mean weaker house prices over the next few years, but not too materially,’ he told Sky News.

‘When we look at an aggregate, we think that over a period of time, we could see house price levels drop by 3 per cent overall.’

Mr Yeaman also predicted a moderate increase to rents.

‘Fundamentally, these changes, they drive a lot more revenue into the budget… but over time, the biggest issue still centres around supply,’ he told the program.

Luke Yeaman is pictured.

The Opposition has vowed to block the negative gearing and capital gains reforms announced in the Budget that it claims will ‘kneecap young Australians’, and could repeal them if it wins the next election.

The 50 per cent capital gains tax discount has been scrapped and replaced with an inflation indexation system across all asset classes, including shares and property.

In another broken 2025 election promise by the Albanese government, negative gearing has also been wound back and restricted to new builds from July 1, 2027.

The Opposition believes the tax changes will block young people from accessing tax advantages that have benefited older generations.

Liberal treasury spokesman Tim Wilson vowed to the ABC that he would ‘make sure they’re never legislated’.

On Sky News last night, Wilson said ‘our plan is the fight them and to make sure the (taxes are) defeated’ in Parliament.

He was then asked if the Opposition would be repeal the measures, and he agreed: ‘Ultimately that’s where we’ll end up, we’ll repeal these measures if necessary but our plan is to defeat them and make sure they’re never legislated.’

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor echoed the sentiment.

‘We absolutely don’t support the assault on aspiration in this budget through hiking taxes on small businesses, on savings, on houses,’ he said.

‘Our position is we’re gonna do everything we can to stop these bad taxes, toxic taxes from getting through the parliament.

‘They are a tax on aspiration, a war on aspiration.

‘We’ll do whatever it takes to roll these taxes back.’

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor are pictured.

Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have both admitted taking advantage of a major property tax concession which they have scrapped for future generations.

The pair have spent the morning defending their broken 2025 election commitments announced in the Federal Budget.

Negative gearing has been wound back and restricted new builds from July 2027.

The 50 per cent capital gains tax discount has also been scrapped and replaced with an inflation-indexation system, applying across all asset classes, including shares and property.

Sky News host Peter Stefanovic asked Albanese whether he had used negative gearing to build his property portfolio.

“Oh, look, I have in the in the past, absolutely,’ the Prime Minister admitted.

“But all my things are declared in the normal way. I’m subject to all of that, but in a transparent way, like everyone else, like everyone else.’

Chalmers made a similar admission to Sky News.

‘I did, maybe a decade ago or something like that,’ he conceded.