Portfolio — 26 May 2026

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino's 26 May activity centred on two converging streams: advancing the government's tax reform package in public communications, and shepherding the 2025–26 supplementary appropriation bills through the House to a third reading.

On tax reform, Mulino confirmed that the forthcoming package will combine the Working Australians Tax Offset and an instant deduction with changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax [TA-260526-treasu-5a8069f15bc0]. The capital gains tax changes are the most contested element: Mulino acknowledged active consultation with venture-capital firms and small-business groups — he named hairdressers and dentists specifically — on the design of carve-outs [TA-260526-treasu-5a8069f15bc0].

The sequencing signal is consequential: a primary bill is due Thursday, with further legislation to follow once consultation results are in [TA-260526-treasu-5a8069f15bc0]. That staged approach gives the government room to finalise sector-specific exemptions without holding up the core package.

In the House, Mulino concluded the second-reading debate on Appropriation Bills Nos. 5 and 6 (2025–26) and used his summing-up to correct what he described as a misrepresentation by the shadow Treasurer over question-time exchanges about trusts for vulnerable people [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s065]. Mulino stated that the Prime Minister had confirmed the budget exempts vulnerable children, special discretionary trusts and similar arrangements from budget changes — and called the shadow Treasurer's characterisation of that answer 'pathetic' [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s065].

He then moved the second reading, and the House agreed. Mulino subsequently moved the third reading; the House agreed and the bills passed [TA-260525-house-43807c883b19:s066].

The trust exemption dispute in the chamber connects directly to the communications stream: the same consultation-and-carve-out logic Mulino applied publicly to capital gains tax — signalling protections for specific groups while deferring final design — echoes his in-chamber defence of the budget's trust exemptions for vulnerable people. Both positions present the government as protecting vulnerable cohorts while prosecuting broader structural reform.

Beyond the fiscal agenda, Mulino's media release also addressed two portfolio-adjacent matters: NDIS reforms, framed as a budget sustainability measure that preserves autonomy for people with disabilities; and the return of ISIS-related cohorts, where he stated the government will apply existing laws in full and provide no assistance to those individuals. The ISIS comment sits outside Mulino's core Treasury and Financial Services brief and appears to reflect a whole-of-government communication posture rather than a specific ministerial action.