Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026

Ms AMBIHAIPAHAR (Barton) (16:41): I rise today in support of these tax reforms and in support of something that Australians have been crying out for many years for: a tax system that is fairer and simpler and that better reflects the reality of modern life. When Australians talk to me, they talk about trying to save for a first home. They talk about juggling the rising costs.

They talk about wanting to get ahead with hard work, and they talk about wanting a system that rewards effort. At its core, that is what this package is about. It's about making our economy work for more Australians.

It is about ensuring that aspiration is rewarded. It is about helping young Australians believe that homeownership is still within their reach, and it's about ensuring that our tax system encourages productive investment rather than simply rewarding those who are best able to navigate a complicated set of rules. Deputy Speaker Boyce, I represent many hardworking families, and I'm sure yourself and a lot of people in this House do as well.

Some are nurses finishing night shift at St George Hospital in my local area. Some are teachers helping educate the next generation at Undercliffe Public School to McCallum Hill Public School to all the way to Carlton South Public School. There are tradies that are waking up very early.

There are small-business owners wondering whether they can afford to hire more waitstaff at their local cafe, and many are young people who are doing everything they can right now but still feel like the dream of owning a home keeps moving further and further away. Let me tell you about someone I will call Sarah. Sarah's 29 years old.

She works full time. She pays her taxes. She contributes a lot to the community.

Every fortnight, she puts money aside for a home deposit. But every time she gets closer to her saving goals, house prices seem to jump again. She watches properties being purchased by investors who already own multiple homes.

She wonders whether she will ever have a place of her own. Australians, like Sarah, are not looking for a handout. They are looking for a fair shot.

That is exactly why these reforms matter. For too long, our tax system has contained distortions that have encouraged investment to flow into established housing rather than into increasing housing supply, and, for too long, tax settings have contributed to a situation where many younger Australians feel locked out of the market. Since 1999, house prices have risen over 400 per cent—more than twice as fast as the average income.

These reforms begin to address that challenge. By pegging negative gearing for future purchases to new builds, we are simply sending a signal that, if investors want a tax concession, we want that investment to help create new housing supply—more homes, more construction and more opportunities for Australians looking to buy their first home. Importantly, these changes are grandfathered.

Australians who already own investment properties will not be affected. The rules people relied upon when making decisions remain in place. But, going forward, investment incentives will be better aligned with Australia's housing needs.

That is sensible reform. It is a balanced reform and it is a reform designed to help an estimated 75,000 more Australians become homeowners over the next decade. There's another important reform before us today, and that is capital gains tax.

Now, I know those three words are unlikely to set social media alight unless you're the opposition, who like to cook up a bit of a scare tactic. But no-one's rushing home to discuss CGT over dinner. But the principle behind these reforms is actually very straightforward.

People should pay tax on genuine gains. Imagine someone buys an asset and holds it for many years; part of that increase in value may simply reflect inflation. Under these reforms, investors will be taxed more accurately, for their real gains rather than inflationary gains.

This is about restoring fairness and economic efficiency. It is also about reducing distortions and it's about encouraging investment to flow towards more productive use, because, when investment decisions are driven by tax loopholes rather than economic merit, the whole economy becomes less productive, and, when productivity suffers, living standards suffer.

That is why these reforms matter not only for today's taxpayers but also for future generations. There's another group that deserves recognition in this debate, and that is workers—the people who get up every day, go to work and keep our economy moving. The working Australians tax offset recognises a simple truth: for most Australians, income comes from work.

It comes from effort. It comes from showing up. It comes from contributing.

And workers deserve to keep more of what they earn. The new working Australians tax offset will provide tax relief to more than 13 million Australians. That means more money in household budgets—more money for groceries, more money for school expenses, more money for family holidays, more money to save and more capacity to get ahead.

For younger Australians especially, this matters enormously. Many millennials and gen Z face challenges that previous generations never experienced to the same extent—higher housing costs, higher rents, greater financial uncertainty. The cost of building a life has increased, and these reforms recognise that reality.

They provide practical support while strengthening incentives to participate in the workforce. Perhaps one of the most popular reforms in this package may be also one of the simplest, and that's the $1,000 instant tax deduction. I suspect many Australians know exactly what it feels like at tax time—the frantic search through drawers, the mysterious shoebox full of receipts, the desperate attempt to remember whether a particular purchase happened in that financial period or the previous one, the endless scanning of emails and the detective work wrapped around that that is required to reconstruct a year's worth of expenses.

It's hardly anyone's favourite annual tradition. I can certainly say that for myself. But millions of Australians currently spend hours gathering documents to claim relatively modest work related expenses.

Many pay accountants, many spend significant time navigating the system and others simply give up and miss out altogether. This reform changes that. A worker with modest work related expenses will be able to claim $1,000 of instant deduction without needing to track every small purchase.

It means less paperwork, less stress, less complexity and more time spent doing things they actually enjoy. The Australian Taxation Office estimates this measure alone will save Australians hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs every year. Think about that.

It's not because we are changing tax rates but because we are reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. Sometimes the best reform is not adding something new. Sometimes it's just making life simpler.

These reforms are also important because they demonstrate that economic responsibility and fairness can go hand in hand. This is often a false choice presented in public debate. Some say we must choose between helping households and maintaining financial responsibility.

Others suggest reform is simply too difficult. But good governments do not avoid difficult decisions. Good governments confront them.

The Albanese government is undertaking these reforms while also strengthening Medicare, helping with cost-of-living pressures, investing in housing, supporting businesses and maintaining responsible budget management. That matters, because tax reform should never be viewed in isolation. Tax reform is about the kind of country we want to build.

Do we want a system that rewards effort? Do we want a system that encourages productive investment? Do we want a system that supports homeownership?

I believe that Australians, unless they're the opposition—those who are laughing across the chamber—would answer yes to all of those questions. That is precisely why these reforms deserve support. Every generation inherits challenges.

The question is whether we choose to tackle them or not. Housing affordability is one of those challenges. Productivity is one of those challenges.

Intergenerational fairness is one of those challenges. We could leave those problems for someone else. We could leave them for future governments.

We could leave them for future taxpayers. But that would not be leadership, because leadership means making decisions today that improve opportunities tomorrow. Leadership is about making hard decisions, not just taking the most popular approach.

That is what this package seeks to do. It supports workers, it supports aspiring homeowners, it supports productive investment, it supports businesses and it supports a stronger economy.