Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026, Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026
Senator MULHOLLAND (Queensland) (10:23): I rise to strongly support the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026. This chamber comes one step closer to delivering a tax system that gives a fair go for working Australians, which is something that those opposite simply cannot stand. Nobody in this country right now is saying, 'Yes, we've got the housing settings in Australia right.' Nobody in this country right now is arguing that giving tax breaks to wealthy investors while young people and working families are locked out of their homeownership dreams is fair.
Fortunately, there is one party that is willing to stand up and do something about it—and that is the Australian Labor Party. It's not easy, but it's the right thing to do. And if those opposite stuck to their own values, their party might not be in such disarray.
This is the single most significant tax reform this country has seen in nearly a quarter of a century. It tips the scales back in favour of working people. And those opposite have the gall to come in here and oppose it.
They come in here backing the vested interests of powerful people over the powerless. So let's talk about what this tax bill does, and let's talk about why they oppose it and why One Nation wants to kill it. This bill cuts taxes for working Australians.
We have already legislated a reduction in the lowest marginal tax rate, from 16c in the dollar down to 15c and then down to 14c. That is real money every year in the pocket of every working Australian. This bill delivers more today: a new tax offset for working Australians, a permanent annual tax offset for every eligible worker in Australia.
Why would you vote against that? This is a $1,000 instant tax deduction—no receipts, no paperwork, no issue. Around 6.2 million Australians will benefit.
Why would you vote against that? More than a quarter of the people who will benefit from that are under 30, and more than half of them are women. Add it all up.
A worker on average earnings will be up to $2,816 a year better off from 2027-28 compared to where we started. This is a Labor government delivering for working people who earn their money through a wage, not a property dividend. This is not a one-off sugar hit; it is established permanently and structurally for future generations.
I would like to remind the Liberals and One Nation that they're the people that you are supposed to be standing up for—working Australians. We are meant to be acting in the interests of Australia's future and the working people who are building this nation. They need someone on their side, and that's exactly what Labor is doing while those opposite are acting with shameless self-interest—the same self-interest that got Australia into this mess, driving rents up and putting homeownership out of reach, perhaps for good.
Now let's talk about housing, because this is where the story of intergenerational housing inequity really starts, and it's a story the Liberals don't like to tell. In 1999, the Howard Liberal government introduced the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount. It was a single policy decision that changed everything.
That worked out very well for people who already owned assets. It worked out very well for people building their property portfolios. It worked out very well for people with access to capital.
But, for younger Australians trying to buy their first home, it has been an economic disaster. We have watched investors compete against first home buyers weekend after weekend in our suburbs. We have watched homeownership move further and further out of reach.
Now this government has the courage to act, not because it's politically easy but because it's right. Since John Howard introduced the CGT discount, house prices have risen more than 400 per cent. In the same period, wages have risen less than half that.
For 25 years, we've watched house prices run away from wages thanks to the Liberal Party. Homeownership amongst Australians aged 25 to 34 has fallen by seven percentage points. In some parts of Queensland, my home state, homeownership is as low as 20 per cent.
For the first time since World War II, a majority of Australians in their early 30s do not own a home and may never own a home. Let that sink in. That is the Liberal Party's legacy, locking young people out of the housing market and throwing away the key.
That is 25 years of broken, rigged systems that our side finally has the courage to fix. As Treasurer Jim Chalmers put it when he introduced this legislation, this is about making aspiration and opportunity the birthright of every Australian, not just some. So what are we doing about it?
We are replacing the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with an inflation adjusted indexation so that only real gains are taxed, not paper gains—not inflation but real gains. We are limiting negative gearing on residential property to new builds from 2027-28. This will channel investment where it is needed—into new housing supply, not into bidding up the price of existing homes that a first home buyer is also trying to purchase at a weekend auction.
Over 80 per cent of new investor lending currently goes to existing homes. We are changing that. These changes will help around 75,000 more Australians achieve their dream of homeownership.
That's 75,000 families and 75,000 sets of keys to a front door of a home of their own. For those who own an investment property purchased before budget night, nothing changes. So the scaremongering needs to end.
We are not going after people who played by the rules that existed. We are changing the rules for tomorrow's future because Australians deserve the same fair go that previous generations in this nation had. Let's talk about the people of this chamber who are voting against it.
The Liberal Party and One Nation are lining up day after day to block these reforms, and Australians deserve to know why. If you understand who benefits from keeping the current system exactly where it is, you get an idea of where they're going on this issue. You only need to have a look at the register of interests—it's publicly available online—and you will find senators and members owning multiple investment properties and benefitting from these tax arrangements.
They have personally accumulated wealth— Senator Henderson interjecting— Senator MULHOLLAND: I'm not surprised you're arcing up about it, Senator Henderson, because you are absolutely part of the problem. People who have personally accumulated wealth through these very tax settings are the ones who are coming in here defending them while working Australians and young Australians cannot get into a house of their own.
Senator Henderson: It's not just me arcing up; it's the Australian people. Senator MULHOLLAND: You come into this place, Senator Henderson, defending the rights of vested interests over the working people of Australia. Senator Henderson: You're destroying younger Australians.
Senator MULHOLLAND: You are part of the problem, and it is that cynical betrayal of the Australian dream that has got the Liberal Party into the mess that they find themselves in. It's no wonder that, when I went through Hansard, I found a curious thing. A lot of your senior leadership team has been found missing on this bill.
Why is that? It's because they're smart enough to know that they shouldn't be voting against the interests and speaking against the interests of working Australians. As a Queenslander, I know exactly what's going on in our housing market at the moment.
A young couple in Caboolture trying to save a deposit for a home just want a fair go. They don't own multiple investment properties like that lot over there. A nurse in Mackay who's renting with her young family after a recent divorce doesn't benefit from a CGT discount.
A tradie in Toowoomba working overtime, hoping to one day own his own home, has nothing to gain from the status quo. In fact, he's hurt by the status quo that Senator Henderson and all her mates on the other side are trying to argue in favour of, because it benefits them, not the people outside of this building that we're trying to stand up for. It sickens me that people would come into this place and put their own personal financial interests above those of working people—nurses, tradies, teachers—out there from where I come from who are struggling to get into the housing market.
Working people need someone to stand up for them, and it will be this Labor government. It certainly won't be that rabble over there. So don't come in here voting for secret vested interests and putting the interests of working people to the side.
We will stand up and we will call it out every single day of the week. Let's be honest about the interests that those opposite and One Nation are standing up for. Those are the interests of Australia's billionaires propping up the Liberal Party and propping up One Nation.
Is it any wonder why they come into this place and argue against the interests of working Australians? What do those billionaires get in return for their money? They get a Liberal Party and a One Nation coming in here voting against a pay rise for childcare workers.
They get a Liberal Party who is willing to keep house prices up, up, up. They get politicians standing up at the dispatch box defending a tax system that rewards capital over work. Labor will not allow this to happen to this country.
We will not allow the interests of billionaires to veto the aspirations of working Australians. We will not be Americanised. It is really shameful that those opposite would trade their values away from those of the Australian people.
The good news in this bleak political landscape I see in front of me is that this budget also provides for a bright future for Australia. We are continuing to build our healthcare system that was absolutely trashed under the Liberal-National government. They tried to drive bulk-billing rates into the floor.
Under this government, we've opened 137 new Medicare urgent care clinics right around Australia. There are 26 in my home state of Queensland alone in places like Brisbane, Buderim, Cairns, Capalaba, Carindale, Gladstone, Mackay and Greenslopes—the list goes on. Most recently, the very last one of our 137 urgent care clinics was opened in Caloundra, and I was very pleased to welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the Sunshine Coast to help us officially launch that new urgent care clinic, which saw over 110 patients in its first three days of operation—110 patients on the Sunshine Coast who didn't need to put their hand in their pocket.
They didn't need to make an appointment. They could walk in and receive world-class care from a GP and a nurse in their own community, and that is exactly what Labor delivers for the working people of this country. I'm also proud to say that bulk-billing rates in this country are going up.
From November 2025 to January this year, more than 81 per cent of GP visits were bulk-billed—the biggest quarterly increase since the pandemic. In communities like mine, in the seat of Longman, on the north side of Brisbane and around places like Caboolture, bulk-billing rates have jumped by 30 per cent. We've also delivered a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators—workers, who are overwhelmingly women, who have been chronically undervalued and underpaid under the opposite side of politics.
A typical educator in this nation is now earning $150 more a week because of Labor. From 1 July next week, paid parental leave in this country rises to 26 weeks—six months of government funded leave for families welcoming a new child—up from 18 weeks when we first came to government. One Nation voted against it.
The Liberal Party didn't support it. It was Labor that delivered 26 weeks of paid parental leave for working women and families in this nation. We also knew it was important to put superannuation on top of that paid parental leave to close the super gap, and guess what?
That mob voted against that too.