Federal Budget 2026: Anthony Albanese defends breaking election promise on CGT, negative gearing

Anthony Albanese has defended breaking a pre-election promise not to pursue changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, claiming the drivers of intergenerational inequality “continued to be entrenched” since the last ballot.

The Albanese government is widely expected to roll back capital gains tax (CGT) concessions as part of Tuesday’s Federal Budget.

The Prime Minister said the budget would be “focused on relief for working peoples”, but the government was committed to doing “the right thing with the right policies”.

“I made it clear last year … we were determined to deliver on the commitments that we’d made and to do that quickly. Last year has been a year of delivery, but we also said that wasn’t the limit of our ambition,” he told ABC Radio National.

Mr Albanese said the government had not foreshadowed cuts to the fuel excise before the outbreak of war in the Middle East on February 28.

“But, we’ve done that in response to the circumstances which are there,” he said.

Asked how drivers of intergenerational inequality had changed since the last election, Mr Albanese said “how they are different is that they continue to be entrenched without reform”.

“And, that’s the point,” he said.

“For a long period of time, young people have tried to save for a home. Another year has passed since the election and not enough has changed.

“So, many people have had another year of missing out at auctions, of renting and paying someone else’s mortgage, and too many young people are close to giving up on the opportunity of owning their own home.”

Mr Albanese said the government was “driven by the best outcome for the nation”.

“If we do change our position on any policy, we will explain why it is that that is occurring,” he said.

“We know that a big priority of my government since 2022 has been housing … We do need to do more and use every lever at our disposal.”

A raft of measures targeting have been announced ahead of Tuesday’s Budget, including extra funding for supply and a speeding up of delivery.

Liberal Senator Jane Hume told the ABC it was “extraordinary” that only a year ago Labor “was saying for the 50th time: no, we will not be changing these taxes in the next term of government”.

“In fact, Jim Chalmers, only 18 months ago, said that he had not seen any evidence that changes to negative gearing, nor changes to capital gains tax, would have any effect on housing supply,” she said.

“So, I’m interested to know what it is that has changed, because Labor have failed their own test on increasing the number of houses.

“They said that life was going to be better off under an Albanese government, that you’d have more money in your pocket, that your electricity prices would go down … that housing would be cheaper. All of that has been a lie.”

Asked if she would support the changes, Senator Hume said if Mr Chalmers “can’t explain how these changes are going to affect housing supply, it’s simply a cash grab”.

“Labor are coming after your money because they’ve run out of their own,” she said.