Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026. Six weeks ago, the day after the budget was released and these tax changes were announced, I said, 'Tinkering around the edges of a broken housing system and spending billions for corporations and the one per cent, that will be the legacy of the Albanese Labor government.' Because tinkering is all they can manage and tinkering is this bill does.

When I first heard that the government was finally going to make some reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax discount, I had some hope because this has been needed for decades. These property investor tax perks have turbocharged Australia's housing market, and we now have one of the most expensive property markets in the world. The graphs are really clear. From the moment these tax breaks come in, house prices shoot up, way up. They diverge from wages incredibly. Now the Greens opposed these changes at the time when prime minister Howard introduced them in 1999 and we haven't stopped campaigning against these unfair tax perks for professional property investors ever since.

So I had hope and then I looked at the data, and the government are keeping the housing tax perks in place for anyone who already has them, and they're simply stopping anyone new from accessing them. Now, it's good that there's an end date on those tax perks, but to bake in inequality—what a missed opportunity to actually fix the housing crisis. All those people who've got 20, 50, 100 investment properties, nothing's changing for them. They keep almost every single benefit that they have now. That is tinkering.

The government should have abolished those unfair tax perks, maybe allowed just one property, but instead they've left $33 billion on the table, in the pockets of those wealthy property investors, who've got three or more investment properties. Labor's low ambition means that the deep inequality in our housing system will be worse for longer, and that this enduring housing crisis will now squarely be of Labor's design. Labor couldn't do a proper job of these tax changes because they refused to take on the one per cent. Housing won't be more affordable for first homebuyers. The housing crisis won't be fixed. Renters will still struggle to buy their first home. In fact, there's no relief in sight for renters because there was nothing in the budget for them. There were no rent caps, no rent freeze, no national tenancy standards, no support. In fact, I might add the only budget allocation for actually building homes was for military homes for overseas military personnel—wow! Ending rather than grandfathering those housing tax breaks would have helped renters get a home of their own. But Labor's telling first homebuyers to wait because wealthy property investors haven't made enough money off the housing crisis.

This budget is a missed opportunity to reduce inequality. The government says they need to raise revenue, but they could have saved $33 billion from not subsidising wealthy property investors with three or more investment properties who don't need the help. They could have saved $33 billion. They could have taxed the greedy gas corporations, who are exporting our gas and making billions off a resource that they get virtually for free because they wrote their own tax laws. That's $17 billion in revenue each year that the government is forgoing because they don't want to make the greedy gas corporations who are fleecing us all pay a minimum 25 per cent export tax. Spending almost $400 billion on submarines from Donald Trump, subs that we might not get ever anyway because the contract's written so poorly, that are all second hand now anyway and that just tie us closer to a dangerous warmonger which makes us all less safe—there are your budget savings.

But, instead, Labor wants to balance the budget by kicking 241,000 people off the NDIS. They are punching down on people with a disability, maybe because they thought they wouldn't fight back but also because they're too gutless to tax the one per cent properly and to tax the super profits of corporations. People working for a living, renters, first home buyers and people with a disability for that matter are under immense pressure, and they've got every right to expect a budget that helps them. But, instead, Labor has once again found room for the wealthy and the well-connected while doing little for everyone else. By choosing to protect existing wealthy property investors, Labor lacked the courage to actually fix the housing crisis.

Politicians and the media try to make out that solving the housing crisis is really difficult and complicated. It's not. It's not about supply or immigration. We are building more homes than population growth. When we paused immigration during COVID, prices didn't come down. Migration is not causing the housing crisis. The problem is treating housing as an investment class, as a vehicle for wealth creation, rather than a human right, and government after government from both of the big parties has allowed it. But who benefits? The ultra wealthy who can buy up these properties and the banks who make record profits off huge mortgages.

If we're serious about tackling the housing crisis, we need to look at the whole problem. We should be implementing rent caps and real rights for renters like longer leases and actual minimum standards so that people aren't living in fear of their next rent increase or forgoing asking for maintenance because they're worried their landlord will decide to end the lease. Those reforms for renters are something that could be done immediately. And if you're talking about supply, well, let's build public housing, good quality public homes, like governments used to. And let's talk about a public property developer that builds homes and sells them at cost, not for profit, not so that developers can land bank or use sunset clauses to make interest off your deposit and keep prices high but to provide homes for people who need them. Essential workers can't afford 96 per cent of Australia's rentals, so, the next time you see a comment from someone on social media suggesting that people just move further from the city, think about that last nurse who took care of you or about your kid's teacher. Shouldn't they be able to afford to live in the community that they work in?

This was an opportunity to show Australians that parliament can still improve people's lives. Instead, Labor wimped out. It chose corporate comfort over structural reform. This government is not concerned with inequality. It's concerned with appearances. It pays lip service. That's why people are fed up. They're fed up because Labor can do something about the problems we face, but they waste every single opportunity to do so. People are sick and tired of the tinkering. People are sick of the gas industry getting the gas they're selling for free and not paying their fair share. They're sick of rents going up and up while wages fall behind. They're sick of worrying about whether their kids will be able to afford to buy a house. These are the signs of an economic system that is broken.

People used to be able to get ahead. Wages kept up with the cost of living. Housing was affordable. Essential services were owned and run for the public, not for the profits of the one per cent. But, over the last decade, corporate profits have doubled. The wealth of Australian billionaires grew by over $29 million per day last year, and now the top one per cent hold more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent. If you're a teacher, a plumber or a nurse or you work in hospitality, you're paying a higher rate of tax on your wage than the big corporations and the ultrawealthy are paying on their extreme wealth. No wonder people are fed up.

The Greens are not going to give up fighting for the third of this country who rent, we're not going to stop fighting for first homebuyers to be able to afford a home and we won't stop calling out the racist dog whistling that pretends that the problems are because of migrants whilst protecting the profits of billionaire donors, because we don't accept that tinkering around the edges is the best that we can hope for, and neither should you.