TV interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise - 26 June 2026
Media event date: 26 June 2026 Date published: 26 June 2026 Media type: General public NATALIE BARR, HOST: More than a month since the federal budget was revealed, Labor's biggest tax changes in a generation have finally passed Parliament. It will go down as one of the most talked about budgets in recent history. The debate has been fierce.
Millions of small business owners, property investors and first home buyers fighting to figure out how they will be affected. For more, let's bring in Health Minister Mark Butler and Liberals Deputy Leader Jane Hume. Good morning to both of you.
Mark, you had another back down on those so-called widow's tax laws yesterday. Australians probably would have lost count of the amount of backflips, tweaks and changes since the budget was announced. If you could go back and do it again, what would you do differently?
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Every significant tax reform package this country has had a series of implementation details that take place over the course of months and we'll see that in the months coming. But yesterday was such a terrific day for Australian workers, for young Australians wanting to break into housing and for small business as well.
More tax cuts for Australian workers, bringing the total tax cuts from this government to almost $3,000 a year, all of them opposed by the Liberal Party for some reason. Finally, young Australians get a fair crack at the Australian dream of home ownership after years and years of watching that slip further and further away. And there's a terrific package for small business, almost $4 billion of tax relief in and of itself, but also a preservation of that 50 per cent capital gains discount for every single active small business in the country.
It's a strong package, it really is, and it's the package Australia needs. : Well, it's not the package you went to the budget with six weeks ago. Are you seriously saying what's happened in this country over the last six weeks was a series of implementation details? That was it? : On Budget night, even before Budget night, frankly, we were saying to people there is going to be a whole lot of work that has to happen over coming months to finalise these implementation details.
That's what happened in Howard and Costello. They had about 10 different pieces of legislation that went to the Parliament. We're having to deal with the definition of start-ups and we've said that very clearly.
We've got consultation papers out. We do have to deal with that issue that you raised at the beginning of this segment, Nat. We've said we'll do that in the next tranche of legislation as well to provide certainty there.
SENATOR JANE HUME: The next tranche? There's more? Oh my god there’s more. : So, all fine.
You're happy with the way it's gone down, Mark? : Yeah. I'm very happy we got this legislation through yesterday. : Well, you're the only one, Mark. : Tax cuts, first home buyers getting a fair crack at housing, good support for small business. We always said there would be two pieces of legislation over the course of this year to clarify that question of start-ups.
We want to provide them with the support they need to keep innovating. And also later in the year we'll be dealing with trust arrangements. That was clear from Budget night. : It's good that it was clear for you.
Jane, you could argue that the Budget was the perfect opportunity for the opposition to cash in on the anger against the government. Somehow, Pauline Hanson seems to have come out ahead. All the polling has gone her way.
What did the Coalition get wrong here? : I'm not interested in the polling. What I'm interested in is the outcome for Australians. And this has been a balls-up from go to whoa.
It was based on a lie in the first place. Anthony Albanese looked Australians in the eye and said there would be no changes to negative gearing, no changes to capital gains tax. Then his budget, you know, it was writ large.
The lie was writ large. But then when the backlash came from business, because this was a tax on business, it was a tax on innovators, it was a tax on housing, it was a tax on savers. When the backlash came, the number of backflips and changes and carve-outs that needed to be made went on and on and on.
We even had one yesterday. Now we've got this widow's tax, which is the meanest and trickiest thing. Now, Labor could have fixed this yesterday, and they chose not to.
It essentially means that even if your negative gearing was grandfathered, if you own an investment property with your spouse and your spouse dies, well, I'm sorry, you get a tax bill. Terribly sorry for your loss, but please pay up. That's what Labor voted for yesterday.
And now we're finding out there's going to be more changes. They have screwed this up from start to finish, and Australians are paying the price. : Which makes it more interesting that you're not interested in the polling and you are behind One Nation. You are now the third party in this country and you say that it's been such a cluster that the government has, you know, carried out here.
Mark, let's go back to you. Former RBA Governor Philip Lowe has said that the capital gains tax changes should have been limited to housing, which was, you know, what we started with, the idea to make housing more affordable for young people, not on other kinds of assets or investment. Is he right?
Should you have stuck with the housing changes? : No, we don't agree with that. We think what we need in this country is a more equitable treatment of income taxation, whether that's income earned from wages, which most Australians do, or income earned from investments and creating some other inequity depending on whether your investments are housing related or some other type of investment. : You know they're the same people a lot of the time though, aren't they? : They are, and so what we want to see is that income earned through all of those sources is broadly taxed at the same rate.
I think your viewers understand, Nat, that more and more wage earners have been bearing the responsibility for funding our hospitals and our schools and our defence forces. Equalising that tax treatment of different types of income was really important. But can I respond to that point Jane was just making?
We did not vote to change the grandfathering arrangements where co-owned or shared properties, which will be grandparented under our arrangements, are transferred to one owner because of a death or because of a divorce. David Pocock withdrew his amendment on the basis that our commitment was that in the next piece of legislation, it would be confirmed that arrangement would be grandfathered. : Is that because your word is your bond?
Why should we trust you? You lied. : You didn't propose the amendment, Jane. You didn't come up with the issue. : You lied.
We would’ve voted for it, we would’ve helped it. : You didn't identify the issue. David Pocock did. You were off the playing field, Jane.
You didn't even identify the issue. : We would’ve helped you do it, but you chose not to, and why should we believe a word you say? : Jane, an independent, David Pocock, identified that and changed it, which brings - : Yeah, good on him. : Good on him, but goes to the same question. Where's the Coalition in all this? : Well, we were there, ready to fight this tax from the very beginning, and we will repeal it in government and replace it with lower taxes, lower and simpler and fairer taxes.
Do not let anyone fool you that this is tax reform because it pushes taxes up, not down. It complicates the system. It's now so complicated.
And it increases the tax burden on all Australians. That's not tax reform. That's a cash grab by a government that's run out of money.
And when it runs out of money, it comes after yours. That's exactly what Labor have done here. : OK, Jane, Mark, thank you very much. We'll see you next week.
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