Federal Budget 2026: Treasurer flags big cost of living, tax changes | Nine.com.au

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Tonight's budget will be our most responsible and it will be our most ambitious. It will be a really responsible budget focused on resilience and reform. There are five major packages in tonight's budget. A fuel security package, a package focused on the cost of living and housing, a productivity package, a tax reform package, and also a savings package as well.

[00:00:24]There will be more than the usual amount of savings and more than the usual amount of reform in the face of more than the usual amount of global economic uncertainty. So, the budget will be about helping people through this global oil shock at the same time as we reform our tax system and our economy for the future as well.

[00:00:44]Now, the developments in the Middle East are a reason to act more decisively and more urgently, not to kick the can down the road. There are substantial issues in our economy, in our tax system, in our housing market. It would be easier to leave them unattended, but it would be wrong. And so, this budget makes a number of difficult decisions in the near term and in the longer term to get our budget into better nick, to reform our tax system, and to deal with some of these issues which have been left unattended for too long.

[00:01:20]The budget deals with major issues like inflation and productivity, tax and housing, and intergenerational fairness as well. These are some of the major challenges that the budget that I released tonight with Katy Gallagher seeks to deal with and respond to in our economy.

[00:01:40]This will be a very ambitious budget in its breadth and also in the nature of the difficult decisions that we will be taking on. Now, obviously, people will go to any length to defend the current arrangements in the tax system as I said. It would be easier to leave them, uh, undisturbed, but it wouldn't be the right thing to do. So, tonight we take a series of right decisions, uh, for the right reasons. Tonight, we choose the hard road of reform, not the path of least resistance. Uh, a responsible budget, a reform budget, and I look forward to talking to you about it tonight, but first, happy to take a couple of your questions.

[00:02:21]We've got Amanda, then Cameron.

[00:02:23]Treasurer, the Prime Minister said yesterday that that this budget will make Australians' lives better. When can people actually expect that to to happen?

[00:02:31]Well, the budget is all about helping people through this difficult global oil shock, at the same time as we reform the economy for the future. And whether it's a tax reform package, the productivity package, which is all about lifting living standards over time. It's about recognizing that this country has so much going for us, but we've got a lot coming at us, as well. And we've got these challenges, whether they be inflation or productivity, issues in the tax system, the housing market, issues of intergenerational fairness, uh, which will be addressed in tonight's budget.

[00:03:02]Uh, this budget will be very ambitious, it will be very responsible, and it will take on some of the issues, uh, which will lift living standards over time.

[00:03:12]Now, for too long in this country, it's been too hard for a lot of Australians to get a toe hold in the housing market.

[00:03:19]Too many Australians are locked out of housing, uh, and, uh, tonight's budget will seek to address that, and that's one of the ways, uh, that we intend to ease the pressure that Australians are feeling. Uh, Australians are paying a really hefty price for this war in the Middle East. They didn't choose the circumstances of this war, they won't decide when it will properly end. The cost and consequences will be felt for some time. And that's why the budget seeks to do a number of different things at once, to help people through this difficult period brought to us by a major war in the Middle East, at the same time uh, as we deal with some of these longer-term issues as well. As I said, uh the developments in the Middle East and all of this global economic uncertainty that we are dealing with, these are reasons to act more decisively and with more urgency, not to kick the can down the road on some of these difficult issues that we take on tonight.

[00:04:13]Thanks. Treasurer, Cameron. Treasurer, you you said that it would be easier to not change some of the settings that might change tonight.

[00:04:21]Why is it better governance to ask voters for forgiveness rather than permission when it comes to some of those changes?

[00:04:27]I think the important thing here is when the government comes to a different view on policy issues like those in the budget tonight that we explain why we've come to a different view. Uh what matters most is that we make the right decisions for the right reasons. What matters most is if we come to a different view that we explain why and I'll be doing that uh tonight. Now, I think people who defend the current arrangements in the tax system and in the housing market, they want to focus on those issues to avoid dealing with the substantive issues here. We can't forget the substantive issue here. And the main issue here is that too many Australians are locked out of the housing market and the intersection of the housing market and the tax tax system uh makes things too hard for too many Australians and particularly younger Australians.

[00:05:16]And it's not about making judgments uh of people who have done well. We want more people to do well.

[00:05:22]Yeah, this budget is about aspiration and opportunity and ambition because we want those things to be available to more people, not just in our economy, but in our society as well. And that's a big part of the motivations for the difficult decisions that we are taking tonight. The status quo in the housing market and in the tax system is not working for too many Australians. Too many people are locked out of the housing market. And as I said, it would be easier uh to pretend that that's not the case. It would be easier to leave some of these difficult issues unattended. It would be easier just to kick the can down the road. But all of this global economic uncertainty, all of this intensifying pressure on Australians is a reason to do more, more urgently, more decisively, not an excuse to kick the can down the road.