Senate — 25 June 2026

The Senate's 25 June 2026 sitting was dominated by the passage of the Albanese government's tax reform package — the most significant structural change to Australia's personal income tax and property investment settings in a generation. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 cleared the chamber with amendments after an extended and fiercely contested committee stage [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s163].

The core of the package is a $250 working-Australian tax offset and a $1,000 instant tax deduction requiring no receipts, together delivering what Minister Gallagher said would be a $2,800 annual boost to the average worker by 2028, benefiting roughly 13.3 million taxpayers [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s196]. The package also limits negative gearing to new residential builds from 1 July 2027 and restores cost-base indexation for capital gains tax — changes Gallagher quantified at $3.6 billion in additional revenue over the forward estimates, with around 85 percent of that coming from the negative-gearing reforms.

The committee stage was the most legally intricate part of the day. Senator Claire Chandler repeatedly sought to split Schedule 1 (CGT changes) and Schedule 2 (negative gearing) into separate bills and pushed for a September committee inquiry [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s016]; the government rejected both moves, insisting the package proceed as a whole [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s013].

Chandler pressed Gallagher on the compliance-cost gap between Treasury's $88 million estimate and CPA Australia's figure of over $500 million per annum — the Minister maintained Treasury's modelling was authoritative. Gallagher confirmed the working-Australian tax offset would cost $6.4 billion and disclosed that 54 percent of the instant deduction and 48 percent of the offset would flow to women, though she agreed to provide the underlying gender-analysis document outside the chamber [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s055].

A substantive exchange on limited-recourse borrowing arrangements for self-managed super funds saw Gallagher cite the Council of Financial Regulators' 2022 warning and the 2014 Murray inquiry recommendation to prohibit such borrowing, with Treasury's $50 million cost estimate flagged for MYEFO revision. Senator Pocock withdrew amendments on sheets 3878 and 3898 after securing government assurances on future grandfathering legislation, and his extensive cross-bench amendment package — spanning sheets 3869–3879 — was agreed, introducing new review requirements, higher small-business asset thresholds, and capital-gains averaging provisions.

The Greens also secured agreement to amendments adding superannuation provisions and new Schedule 5 LRBA provisions to the bill's title and content [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s115]. One Nation's requests — including a minimum tax on capital gains heading and indexation of income-tax thresholds — were agreed as requests. The Treasury Laws Amendment Bill was ultimately reported with a series of amendments; the Income Tax Rates Amendment Bill was reported without amendment [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s121].

Question time saw the same fault lines play out in sharper political terms. Minister Wong deflected Opposition accusations of a Greens deal by insisting the government negotiated to secure tax cuts rather than form a minority arrangement, but Senator O'Sullivan's characterisation of a "dirty, rotten deal" and Senator Cadell's Monty Python "dead-parrot" analogy — describing the $77 billion in new taxes as a misdirection [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s130] — set the tone for the Opposition's unified messaging.

Senator Hume raised the "widow's tax" framing for the CGT changes on inherited assets, a line the Opposition used repeatedly to argue the reforms impose a stealth death tax. Senator Canavan raised state-revenue impacts; Wong responded by citing increased Commonwealth funding for schools, hospitals and urgent-care clinics. The government secured supportive questions from Labor senators — Senator O'Neill catalogued the $47 billion Australian Housing Plan (eight times the previous coalition's decade of spending), the five-percent deposit scheme's support for more than 260,000 first-home buyers, and 55,000 social and affordable homes pledged against 373 built by the coalition [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s205].

Beyond the tax package, three other substantive threads ran through the day. On online safety, Senator David Pocock's My Face, My Rights Bill 2025 — targeting AI-generated deepfakes — was debated but failed, with Labor citing regulatory overlap with existing eSafety powers and its digital-duty-of-care framework as grounds for opposition [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s002].

The Greens supported the bill's purpose but urged committee referral and satire exemptions; One Nation opposed it as too broad. On environment, Greens leader Larissa Waters challenged Minister Watt over the Browse gas project, which Watt confirmed is under EPBC Act and Western Australian law assessment with no decision made, and noted the national EPA commences on 1 July.

On biosecurity, Minister McCarthy reported three H5 bird flu detections in migratory seabirds, described $113 million in biosecurity investment, and confirmed national response arrangements are activated. Senator Ayres introduced a three-bill cluster — the Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposals) Bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief No. 2) Bill, and the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill — read together with second-reading speeches incorporated in Hansard [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s124].

In motions, the KPMG governance debate was a notable side thread: Senator Barbara Pocock moved a motion calling for breakup and regulation of the Big Four, penalties for unethical contractors, and stronger whistleblower protections [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s148]; Senators Scarr and O'Neill both engaged substantively, with Scarr urging Corporations Act reform and O'Neill focusing on audit integrity.

Senator Chandler's earlier motion to suspend standing orders to remove time limits on bill consideration — criticising what she called a guillotine on tax debate [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s110] — was successfully shut down by Wong's closure motion [TA-260625-senate-924b2fe8cda6:s126]. Senator Hume separately sought to give precedence to the Fair Work Commission Backlog Bill; that too was closed off.

In committee and procedural business, the Opposition used tabling motions to demand extensive ministerial disclosure across four portfolios: Indigenous affairs correspondence with the Tangentyere Council and the National Indigenous Australians Agency; Climate Change estimates briefs from the 2026-27 budget hearing; health mortality data from 2020 to 2025 including COVID-19 vaccination records; and ORIC and NIAA records on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation for Welfare Services.

Senator Askew moved a motion to establish a Select Committee on Corruption in the Construction Industry. Senator O'Neill raised concerns about automated decision-making in Delegated Legislation Monitor No. 6, with Senator Smith reinforcing scrutiny committee concerns about automation in the NDIS amendment and Health Insurance Amendment bills. Senator Pocock criticised the superannuation loophole denying contributions to workers under 18, naming major retailers as beneficiaries.