Guardian Australia · Jonathan Barrett and Tom McIlroy · Tuesday 12 May 2026
Treasurer Jim Chalmers unveils sweeping changes to negative gearing, the capital gains tax discount and trust taxation, pitched as intergenerational rebalancing from incomes to assets.
Hawke and I ran at negative gearing in '85 and the property lobby ran us off the road inside two years. Chalmers has gone the full Monty — gearing, CGT, trusts, the lot — and called it intergenerational fairness, which is the polite way of saying the kids finally outnumber the landlords at the ballot box. Whether it survives contact with the Senate is another matter. Reform's easy on budget night. It's the morning after that kills you.