Shadow Portfolio — 29 May 2026

Sam Birrell (Nationals) used his parliamentary time on 28 May to run a sustained, two-part attack on the budget's capital gains tax changes as they apply to agricultural businesses — an attack that ran from a member's statement through to question time, giving the critique unusual coherence across both procedural windows.

In his member's statement, Birrell labelled the budget a "lead zeppelin", arguing the Prime Minister and Treasurer broke an explicit pre-election promise that negative gearing and capital gains tax were off the table [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s039]. He pressed the fairness argument directly onto farming families, contending the new CGT measures penalise farmers who spent years building their businesses.

He also flagged that the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry failed to answer a question on the tax treatment of farm trusts — a gap he would exploit again in question time.

In question time, Birrell directed that very question to the agriculture minister, citing peak agricultural bodies warning of "massively high" capital gains tax exposure under the budget [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s126]. He drew on the National Farmers' Federation's position that the changes could force farming families to delay succession planning, take on additional debt, or sell parts of their properties to meet the tax liability [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s126].

He closed by pressing the minister to guarantee farming families would not be worse off — framing that placed the minister in the position of either offering a guarantee or conceding the concern.

The sequencing matters strategically. The member's statement established the broken-promise frame and named the minister's silence on farm trusts; question time then formalised that silence into a public accountability test. Birrell's use of the NFF as an external authority shielded the attack from being characterised as purely partisan, embedding an industry-credibility layer into the critique.

Birrell also raised two electorate-specific issues in the member's statement that sit outside the CGT attack but signal the breadth of his budget critique. He called for greater government support for regional athletes facing approximately $10,000 in competition costs, citing 17-year-old canoeist Emma Corrin from his electorate [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s087].

He also raised the $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans, citing a letter from the Seymour RSL president warning the limit could jeopardise necessary care. These are localised concerns rather than headline policy contests, but they extend the budget-critique narrative into sport funding and veterans' health — two areas with community resonance in regional electorates.

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