Portfolio — 12 May 2026
Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered the 2026-27 Budget on 12 May, framing it as a response to the Middle East conflict and the resulting global oil shock. The centrepiece is a $14.8 billion fuel security package — including a $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, a $3.2 billion Australian Fuel Security Reserve, and a temporary halving of the fuel excise — alongside a $250 Working Australians Tax Offset, sweeping negative gearing and CGT reforms, and $47 billion in total housing investment targeting 65,000 new homes over a decade.
The fiscal position improves by $44.9 billion with $63.8 billion in savings, and the Budget also commits an additional $53 billion to defence over ten years. Chalmers reinforced these themes in the House by moving the Appropriation Bill No. 1 second reading, describing the Budget as the most important and ambitious in decades.
The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.