Federal budget verdict: Jim Chalmers’ report card is in

May 12, 2026 — 7:40pm

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This is the budget Jim Chalmers has been itching to hand down for a decade.

It will be framed by Labor as an economically responsible budget that makes difficult but necessary decisions to raise taxes, cut spending and boost productivity.

But it’s more significant than that because of the scope and ambition of what Labor is trying to achieve. It’s also unbalanced in that it embraces some big challenges and shuns others.

First off, to paraphrase Paul Keating, this is a budget for the Labor true believers. After four years of cautious incrementalism, Chalmers – backed to the hilt by Anthony Albanese – hasn’t just reached for one or two slightly controversial or ambitious measures.

Instead, as the treasurer said on budget night, “this is the most important and ambitious budget in decades” and “this is about better aligning the taxes paid on these types of [investment] incomes with the taxes paid on wages”.

How the tax changes impact property investors and first home buyers

At its heart, Chalmers’ fifth federal budget is hugely ambitious on some of the tax changes on the revenue raising side it attempts, but it doesn’t take on the task of using that extra revenue to make broadscale tax reform.

Chalmers has done three big things on the revenue side: curbing negative gearing and capital gains tax breaks and ensuring that trusts pay a minimum 30 per cent tax.

This will raise a whopping $100 billion extra in revenue for federal coffers over the next 10 years, though........

© The Age