Shadow Portfolio — 14 May 2026

Melissa McIntosh ran a coordinated two-front attack on the Albanese government's housing record on 14 May 2026, targeting both the human cost to women and the fiscal mechanics of the government's new housing tax. In a parliamentary debate she documented a $1 billion gap between the government's pledged crisis accommodation spending and what has actually been delivered — $1.3 billion promised, $321 million spent, 30 dwellings built.

At question time she turned to the government's own budget papers and the Prime Minister's prior statements on negative gearing to argue the new housing tax will raise rents, not lower them. The two interventions together frame housing as a policy failure that falls disproportionately on women, linking mortgage stress, homelessness, and rental pressure into a single opposition narrative.