The first Bill of the Albanese Labor Government’s ambitious tax reform package has just passed the Parliament and will become law.
This is a victory for workers, first home buyers and future generations.
The Bill that has passed today will help ensure aspiration and opportunity are the birthright of every Australian, not just some.
Today we have locked in two more rounds of income tax cuts for millions of Australians, a fair go for first home buyers, and a fairer tax system that better aligns the treatment of labour and asset income.
The Bill includes tax cuts in the form of the Working Australians Tax Offset and the instant tax deduction for workers.
We are now delivering five income tax cuts in three different ways, which will benefit the average worker by up to $2,816 a year from 2028.
The three right wing parties all voted against tax cuts and they all voted against a fair go for first home buyers. They share a divisive anti‑worker agenda.
The Bill reforms future negative gearing so that it only applies to new builds from 1 July 2027, with generous grandfathering provisions for anyone who currently owns an investment property.
This is all about encouraging investment in new housing supply while also respecting previous investment decisions people have made.
The Bill fixes a big distortion that was created in our economy over 25 years ago by returning the capital gains tax to its original intent from 1 July 2027.
The old intersection between the tax system and the housing market helped make housing unaffordable and coincided with decades of low productivity growth.
We are taking action because doing nothing would have consigned another generation to that broken status quo and locked them out of the housing market.
The Bill that passed today included important amendments that we have previously flagged, including an increase to the eligible turnover threshold for the 50 per cent active asset CGT concession from $2 million to $10 million, so that all 2.7 million active small businesses and 98 per cent of all active businesses will be eligible for generous CGT concessions.
We will continue to implement the next steps and further tranches of legislation as we roll out our full tax reform package in the months ahead.
The Liberals, Nationals and One Nation all voted against our plan to cut income taxes and make the housing market fairer, confirming that whenever they have an opportunity to make life easier for Australians, they choose not to take it.
Today is a really important day for economic reform, for tax reform, for our economy and our country and it’s a very good day for workers and first home buyers in particular.
