Portfolio — 5 June 2026

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino's 5 June activity was dominated by a single major event — the passage through the House of Representatives of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 — and the communications campaign Mulino ran around it across two separate media appearances the same day [TA-260605-treasu-cefb0d9a4357].

In the House, Mulino framed the bills as a once-in-a-generation reform addressing what he described as systemic disadvantage for young Australians in the tax and property markets [TA-260603-house-804d9cb5f6e1:s092]. The legislation has four operative schedules. Schedule 1 replaces the existing 50 percent capital gains tax discount on nominal gains with a tax on real gains, reintroducing inflation indexation.

Schedule 2 limits negative gearing to new residential builds and designated government housing priorities, abolishing it for established properties from 2027 — with existing investments grandfathered. Schedule 3 introduces a $250 annual Working Australian Tax Offset for more than 13 million workers, restricted to earned income [TA-260603-house-804d9cb5f6e1:s092].

Schedule 4 provides a $1,000 instant tax deduction while preserving eligibility for existing deductions including donations and superannuation contributions [TA-260603-house-804d9cb5f6e1:s092]. Mulino put the distributional impact at approximately 6.2 million direct beneficiaries, with an average worker receiving around $205 at tax time, rising to potential benefits of $2,816 per worker by 2028.

On housing, Treasury modelling cited in the debate projects the reforms will enable around 75,000 additional Australians to purchase homes over the next decade by shifting the composition of property ownership from investors to owner-occupiers [TA-260603-house-804d9cb5f6e1:s092].

In Question Time, Mulino sharpened the political argument, attributing the decline in youth homeownership rates directly to the 1999 Howard-Costello capital gains tax changes, which he said drove house prices from four to eight times average household income [TA-260604-house-97eb5e75391c:s156]. He argued the legislation corrects that structural imbalance by tilting the tax system back toward first-home buyers, and that investors should not receive greater tax support than owner-occupiers [TA-260604-house-97eb5e75391c:s156].

The media release stream reinforced both the legislative passage and the Senate pathway, with Mulino noting a two-day Senate Legislation Committee inquiry will examine the reforms before the mid-winter break [TA-260605-treasu-cefb0d9a4357]. That framing — House passage secured, Senate scrutiny imminent — ran consistently across both media appearances, signalling a deliberate communications strategy centred on building public momentum ahead of the Senate vote.

Separate from the tax package, Mulino released exposure-draft regulations that will ban the use of adverse genetic-testing results in life-insurance underwriting from 8 October 2026, with enforcement via strict liability offences and civil penalty provisions [TA-260605-treasu-840fab491e39]. Public consultation on the draft closes 26 June 2026. The genetic-testing ban sits within the Financial Services portfolio rather than the tax portfolio, but Mulino's communications positioned both measures as part of the same distributional agenda — improving the financial position of low- and middle-income Australians.

That framing connects today's activity to the pattern visible in the 2 June Note, where the same portfolio emphasis on tax offsets, wage growth and targeted regulatory reform for working Australians was the central theme.