Portfolio — 29 May 2026

Assistant Minister Matt Thistlethwaite used three separate parliamentary contributions on 28 May to advance a consistent message: the current tax system is structurally unfair and the government's budget package corrects it. The most consequential announcements concern negative gearing and capital gains tax. From 1 July 2027, negative gearing will be limited to new off-the-plan builds for new investors, while existing negatively geared properties remain unaffected [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s013].

The capital gains tax discount — the 50 percent flat rate in place since 1999 — will be replaced from the same date by an indexation-based calculation with a 30 percent minimum rate, restoring a method that ties tax liability to real rather than nominal gains [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s102].

On housing supply, Thistlethwaite announced a $2 billion enabling infrastructure investment designed to unlock up to 64,000 additional homes, taking the Homes for Australia Plan above $47 billion. He also cited 282 social and affordable homes already under construction in his electorate through the Housing Australia Future Fund [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s013].

The structural logic connecting both streams is explicit: restricting future negative gearing to new builds while simultaneously funding enabling infrastructure is designed to shift investor demand toward supply-creating activity rather than competition for existing stock.

The broader budget numbers Thistlethwaite cited place the fiscal context: $44 billion in additional revenue and $63.8 billion in savings, producing a $31 billion deficit for 2026–27 but a $44 billion improvement over forward estimates, with gross and net debt tracking below MYEFO projections [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s102]. On the household side, the package includes two staged income tax cuts, a $250 Working Australians tax offset, a $1,000 instant tax deduction, a three-month halving of fuel excise, the heavy-vehicle road user charge reduced to zero for the same period, and an increase in the Medicare levy low-income threshold to 2.9 percent [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s013].

The pension supplement overseas travel limit extending from six to twelve weeks would benefit approximately 92,000 pensioners annually.

For business, Thistlethwaite outlined a loss-carry-back from 1 July 2026, a refundable tax offset for start-ups from 1 July 2028, and a 30 percent tax on discretionary trust distributions from the same date — with carve-outs for disability, testamentary, deceased-estate and charitable trusts [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s102]. Productivity measures include removing 1,000 nuisance tariffs, extending the $20,000 instant asset write-off, faster environmental approvals, energy market modernisation, and accelerated skills assessment for migrants alongside points-test reform — the latter directly intersecting with Thistlethwaite's immigration portfolio responsibilities.

In the budget motion debate, Thistlethwaite framed the opposition to these reforms as a political coalition of the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation, pointing to the Farrer by-election — where the Liberal Party lost a previously safe seat to One Nation on Liberal preferences — as evidence of the crossbench alignment's electoral costs [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s070].

He described the current system as one that "punishes hardworking Australians who own investment assets" and stated the government is determined to fix it [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s070]. He also credited the Minister for Climate Change and Energy with securing additional fuel supplies through regional partnerships, signalling a cross-portfolio dependency underpinning the fuel-excise relief measure.