Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026
Ms JORDAN-BAIRD (Gorton) (18:46): There's no question Australia is the greatest country in the world. Being Australian is something truly unique. It's about having a fair go at working hard and having it pay off when you buy your own home.
When we talk about a home, I'm talking about something more than just four walls and a roof. I'm talking about stability. It's knowing that, no matter what, you've got a place to build your future, to raise your family in or to retire into knowing your life won't be uprooted by decisions you can't control, like those of a landlord.
It's the freedom that comes with this sense of security—the freedom to paint the walls whatever colour you like, but also the freedom to call this place your own. I grew up in a house in the suburbs of Melbourne with my two big sisters. My parents bought our family home back in the 1980s.
It was a huge deal for them to do that. It was a place they could raise their family—my family—with a cubby in the backyard and room for us to grow, a place that we always knew would be there for us, a place to come home to after a long day of school or after school sport and a place that shaped my formative years. That security of having a roof over our heads is something that I did not ever take for granted.
I feel very fortunate to have been able to buy my own home in my adult life with my husband, Chris. And I say that because the reality is that, for most Australians, the Australian dream is no longer a given. The anxiety of going to house inspection after house inspection, being outbid by mum and dad investors.
It can be so heartbreaking when you fall in love with a home, imagine your own furniture in it and imagine your future there, simply to be outbid by an investor backed by the Australian taxpayer. I don't want this for young Australians. I don't want this for our next generation of Australians.
It's not right and it's not a fair go. There is no doubt that Aussie families are doing it tough right now. Families are feeling the weight of the cost of living at the bowser and at the supermarket checkout, and young people are feeling it when they go to buy their first home at auction, only to be outbid by the investors next to them.
This was a mammoth budget responding to generational challenges, making the changes that Australians have for too long been crying out for. That is because we're dealing with a housing market that is broken. Young Aussies are doing the right thing.
They're studying, picking up a trade, working hard and saving, but your first home still costs eight times the annual income. It takes 11 years to save for, and first home buyers face the reality that they may never pay off their mortgage. When a nurse, a teacher, a police officer or an early childhood educator is paying more tax than someone who is earning millions of dollars in buying and selling assets, when house prices have increased 400 per cent—twice as fast as wages—and when it's easier to buy your 10th home than to buy your first home, then the system is broken.
Once you accept that the system is broken, then you have to do something about it, and that's what our budget is doing. Our budget wants something simple—for young people to get a fair go at owning their own home. It's a simple ask and one we are taking on the work to deliver.
Since Labor came to government in 2022, we have been working at continuing to support investment in new housing supply, because to make housing more affordable, we need to build more homes. Right now too much housing isn't getting built because the water, sewerage, roads and energy infrastructure simply aren't there. That's why we're investing $2 billion in the infrastructure we need to unlock more homes across Australia.
In my electorate of Gorton, over 3,000 people have bought their first home thanks to our five per cent deposit scheme. It's changing lives, and it's doing this for families right across the country. Changes like our five per cent deposit scheme matter, but what we've recognised is it's just not enough alone.
House prices are still climbing at an alarming rate, and not enough young people are getting into their first homes. We have recognised that, if we really care about getting young people into their first homes, changes to our taxation system are needed, because, for younger Aussies, the playing field just isn't fair. Our tax changes are estimated to support an additional 75,000 homeowners over the next decade to get into their own home.
Meanwhile, those opposite seem to be the only ones in Australia clinging to the status quo, where a generation of Australians are locked out of the housing market and where, without significant structural change, future generations will face the same fate. I'm a millennial. I know these challenges.
We're balancing these changes with supporting young Aussies who want to get ahead. Negative gearing will still be possible for investors because, if you're a young person in this country, we want you to get ahead. We want to support you to do that.
If you want to do it through property, you still can get those generous housing concessions, but we ask one thing, that investment is directed into new housing supply. We ask you to do that through building desperately needed new homes. On this side of the House, we know that economic responsibility and tax reform can go hand in hand.
We want a system that encourages productive investment, one that supports aspiring homeowners, hard-working Aussies who deserve a fair go, and one that supports our younger generations of Australians, just as their parents' and grandparents' generations were supported, because generational fairness matters. These reforms begin to address these generational challenges and help level the playing field for first-time buyers, which our younger generations of Australians desperately deserve.
Part of our budget's major changes are our tax cuts. To help with the cost of living, we're delivering more tax cuts from 1 July this year for every Australian taxpayer. We're delivering an extra $250 off working Australians' tax bills permanently, and we're delivering a $1,000 instant tax deduction without receipts.
The $250 working Australians tax offset will provide a tax cut for the 13.3 million Australians who receive income from work. It will increase the effective tax-free threshold for workers by $1,785. All of this means that the average worker will benefit by up to $3,000.
We're recognising that for more Aussies, especially young people, income comes from work, and our tax system should reflect that. Our tax cuts are deliberately designed to support younger Australians, with millennials and Gen Z expected to make up around two-thirds of the beneficiaries. We're backing the next generation of Aussies with practical reforms, making sure that you can keep more of what you earn and are supported in getting ahead.
These tax cuts are on top of our fuel tax cuts, where we've acted fast to bring down the price of fuel by cutting the fuel tax and securing future supply. We've acted to shield Australians from the worst of the global fuel crisis, and it's working. We now have more fuel in Australia than at the start of the global crisis.
For small businesses, we've permanently extended the $20,000 instant asset write-off from July this year. This allows small businesses with turnovers of up to $10 million to immediately deduct eligible assets costing less than $20,000 off that year's tax return. You can claim more than one asset, which helps businesses make their investment decisions with confidence.
This is estimated to improve cash flow for small businesses by around $890 million over the next five years. We're also introducing loss refundability to support new startup businesses. From 2028-29, small startups in their first two years of operation will be able to get a refund for tax losses up to the value of the fringe benefits tax and withholding tax paid on employee wages.
This will benefit up to 25,000 young companies each year, providing valuable cash flow support. I think there's been less focus so far on these measures, but, from speaking with local businesses and learning about their situations, I know that these are real benefits that they'll receive. While this budget is making life easier for Australians today, we're also building a fairer future for tomorrow.
We're ensuring that every Australian can access the health care they need, regardless of their postcode or bank balance, and we're making tax cuts to put more money back into the pockets of everyday Australians and tax cuts to even the playing field for first home buyers. These are all practical reforms that respond to the real pressures Australians are facing now, as well as those they will face in future generations.
On this side of the House, we believe that if a system is working against Aussies and locking first home buyers out of the housing market then something needs to change, and we are willing to make those difficult decisions and deliver on those changes, because we know that every Australian deserves a fair go.