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

Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (19:12): I've been thinking about all the speeches that I've heard tonight and throughout the day on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026. I think it was you, Senator Scarr—I wasn't here, but I've just had that vibe that it may have been you. The thing that's coming to my mind about all of this is that, when you frame it, we have a housing crisis.

We don't have enough supply. We also have a rental crisis. We don't have enough houses for people to rent.

Young people can't afford houses, so young people are using different mechanisms to save some money in order to fast-track their ability to have a nest egg big enough. They're investing in shares and ETFs. They're innovating in small business.

So they're trying different things. They're having a go. They're having a crack.

They're trying to make their lives better. They're aspiring. Senator Cadell spoke about aspiration.

This is what people want: to create wealth and build a better life. So what has this government done as the solution to this? They've decided to tax shares, they've decided to tax ETFs, they've decided to tax small businesses and they've taken away from young Australians, in the name of intergenerational equity, the same mechanisms for wealth creation that prior generations had: 'So that you can have a better chance, we're not going to let you use the mechanisms that we used in order to create wealth.' How do you actually expect anybody to believe that?

The thing that has struck me from the afternoon into the evening as I've been in the chamber, whether as temporary chair or in the shadow ministerial spot, is the Greens talking about the fact that this is a toxic group of taxes. You facilitated it. You let them do it.

And, as Senator Cadell said, you actually got nothing for it. You just gave it to them. You've just let them have it, and you've let young Australians pay the price for it.

You've taken away their opportunities to invest, and you've taxed them. The thing is you want some of their money when they make a profit, but you don't want to let them offset some of the losses if they don't make some money. Senator Scarr: Socialise the profits; privatise the losses.

Senator KOVACIC: Indeed. As I said earlier, we have entered the Albanese Labor government's quasi-socialist era with the support of the Greens. That's what it is: 'If you've got something good, we want some of it; if it's a problem, we don't want to know about it.

Your losses are your problem. Of any profit you make, we want a bunch—but only if you're an individual, only if you're a mum-and-dad investor, only if you're a young person. If you're an industry super fund, we'll continue to subsidise you.

If you are an international global institution who wants to come here and create build-to-rent properties, we'll give you subsidies as well because you're a good guy, you international global institution. We want to give you tax concessions; we just don't want to give young Australians tax concessions. We don't want to give mum-and-dad investors tax concessions, because they're the bad guys.' That's what I've come to understand from what has transpired here today.

Let's be clear. We oppose Labor's capital gains tax changes, and we oppose Labor's changes to negative gearing. We oppose them because they are fundamentally wrong and because they do not solve the problems at hand.

The thing that this government seems to want to hide from as well is the fact that they lied to the Australian people. They went to an election and said that they would not do this. The Prime Minister, Prime Minister Albanese, told Australians before the last election, 'There will be no changes,' and what has he done?

He has done exactly what he said he wouldn't do. And we ask why people are losing trust in institutions. We ask why people are losing trust in democracy.

It is because they don't get truth from government. Instead of getting answers as to what is really going on, they get smugness and arrogance, as though we aren't entitled to the real answers as to why things have occurred. Australians aren't stupid; they can see what is going on.

We have clear evidence from the RBA that this government has overspent. But do you know what? We don't even need the RBA to tell us that.

We can see it. We have had 15 interest rate rises under this government, and we have had three interest rate reductions. They like to talk about the rate cuts that they've seen, but they never want to talk about the 15 interest rate rises.

That's around $30,000 a year to the average Australian mortgage holder. Have a think about what you can buy with $30,000. Have a think also about what cuts Australians have had to make in their own lives in order to come up with that $30,000.

What aren't they buying for their children? What aren't they buying or saving for their own future? They're really important questions.

Senator Collins made a comment earlier in her speech about difficult decisions people are making in supermarkets. I've had my own pharmacist tell me that she has people coming in asking, 'Does it work if, so I can stretch my packet out, I take half of my tablet in the morning and half in the evening?' These are real conversations that real Australians are having, and those opposite pretend there's nothing to see here, that people are not in trouble and that people are not struggling.

Instead of solving those problems, we are just taxing people more—not 'we', you. You are taxing people more. That's not transparency.

That's not honesty. This has been a deception of the highest order. I don't understand how this government can sit there and pretend that this is about intergenerational equity when we know that it's not and when we know that the only ones getting concessions are at the big end of town: the industry super funds and the global institutional investors.

Let's have a think about renters for a moment. I've talked about young Australians who are trying to buy a home. Have a think about the fact that they've got to rent before they buy their first home.

There are Australians who are struggling and are going to be renting for a lot longer because they can't get ahead because of the cost-of-living crisis that this government has created. This government's own budget papers admit that these tax changes will increase rents. They are taking from young Australians at every single stage of their journey—not just at the point of purchase but at every single point where they're trying to make their way through life, at every point where they're trying to create a better future for themselves.

Research from independent economists suggests that rents could rise by up to $160 a week in Sydney and around $130 a week in Melbourne. Have a think about that $130 to $160 a week. That's a lot of money.

That's another bunch of groceries that someone's not going to buy. That may be some medical treatment that somebody's not going to get for themselves. In most cases, it will be women who defer their own medical treatment to ensure that their children get appropriate medical treatment.

Senator Scarr: Electricity bill. Senator KOVACIC: Electricity bill. It'll be, perhaps, some dental treatment that somebody doesn't go and get, or they delay the treatment for their children to go to the dentist.

It might be an appliance at home that doesn't get upgraded, or it could well be heaters that don't get turned on in winter. Senator Scarr: School excursions. Senator KOVACIC: School excursions.

School uniforms. Senator Scarr: Sport. Senator KOVACIC: Sport—thank you, Senator Scarr—and kids going to school without breakfast.

That is becoming an increasing problem in our country. Think about that when you talk about $130 to $160 a week. That's not a small amount of money.

Then, what are we doing? We're driving mum-and-dad investors out of the private rental market. What is that going to do?

That's going to mean that we are going to have fewer investment properties, and, when we have fewer investment properties—fewer rental properties—we have higher rents. The rents go up. It's not rocket science.

Senator Scarr: Basic economics. Senator Kovacic: It's basic economics. I don't have that great book that you have, Senator Scarr.

I wish that I did, but I don't, and I often admire it and think that I should get myself a copy. Senator Scarr: We'll get you a copy. Senator KOVACIC: Thank you very much—but this is the whole point.

This is basic stuff. We know it and Australians know it, but the government doesn't care. With the assistance of the Greens, they will push these bills through.

They'll push this legislation through, and Australians will pay the price for it. The hard reality is that life is tough enough as it is today. It is going to get even harder for so many people.

I don't say that to scaremonger. I don't say that to gloat. I say that as a sad reality, a consequence of the decisions of this government and the Greens.

Young Australians are caught in a brutal squeeze. Rents are going up, there's a higher capital gains tax on their savings, in whatever form they've chosen to have savings, and the government just keeps hitting them, over and over and over again. That's without even considering Labor's active inflation agenda.

Inflationary impacts have been created by the Albanese Labor government. Real wages are declining. Productivity has tanked.

Renters are paying more in rent. People with a mortgage are paying more in their repayments. Everyone is paying more in tax and taking home less in real terms.

This is the Albanese Labor government's record, and it is a shameful one. This is the highest taxing government in Australia's history, with the highest rate of capital gains tax amongst our contemporaries. I've said it a number of times in this chamber, but I'm going to say it again.

Communist China has a CGT flat rate of 20 per cent. The Albanese Labor government, with the assistance of the Greens and our new quasisocialist government, has a rate of 30 per cent. Think about that.

Senator Cadell interjecting— Senator KOVACIC: Indeed, Senator Cadell. The Commonwealth Bank's own chief economist has said these changes will raise revenue but will not build more homes—the very thing the government keeps trying to tell us that these changes will affect. It is clear that it will not occur.

Even the government's own budget papers say that there will be fewer homes. What are we trying to sell here? Why don't you actually just tell us what your actual agenda is?

It's clearly not to provide more housing for Australians to buy. I'll repeat it again. It's my view that this government wants Australians to be in a perpetual state of renting and to live in homes owned by the super funds and built by the CFMEU.

That's what this government wants, because, otherwise, it would not create a vicious cycle such as this one where young Australians simply cannot get ahead. The narrative of this budget is intergenerational equity. The reality is an intergenerational betrayal.

Young Australians trying to get ahead by renting while saving are hit first by higher rents and then by higher taxes on the moneys that they are trying to save to build their nest egg. This government needs to explain why it is doing this and why it will not tell the truth to the Australian public.