Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to deliver the federal budget speech tonight, but the real drama unfolded earlier when he admitted the housing market 'isn't working' and the tax system around it is 'out of whack.' In a move that surprised absolutely no one who has tried to rent or buy a home in the past five years, the government is now acknowledging that the system may have a few bugs.
Shadow finance minister Claire Chandler countered with the riveting economic insight that 'you don't make more of something by increasing taxes on it,' suggesting instead that we simply 'build more houses.' She trotted out the usual laundry list of programs - 5% deposit schemes, the Housing Australia Future Fund, a $2bn partnership with states and territories for enabling infrastructure - as if repeating them loudly enough might make housing materialize out of thin air.
Chandler also insisted that 'this isn't about generation versus generation,' which is a bold claim given that millennials and Gen Z are currently competing with boomers for the last affordable shack within 50 kilometers of a city center. The budget speech tonight is expected to contain more details, presumably including a plan to politely ask the housing market to stop being broken.