Australian Government Finds Speedy Solution To Property Investor Stress; Remote Housing Crisis Still On 10-Year Plan

CANBERRA – Treasury has confirmed the Albanese Government’s sweeping changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing will be legislated within 14 months, while a separate program to halve overcrowding in remote Northern Territory housing remains scheduled for completion in 2035.

The Budget delivered on Tuesday night announced a 30 per cent minimum tax on capital gains and the staged removal of the 50 per cent CGT discount, with new rules to commence from 1 July 2027.

The same Budget allocated $4 billion across a decade to address overcrowding in remote NT communities, where 18 people regularly share three-bedroom houses.

“This Budget rebalances a system more generous to assets than to labour” a senior Treasury spokesperson said. “We expect to have the property tax provisions drafted, consulted, debated, passed and operational well before any Tier-2 community in the Northern Territory sees a second toilet.”

Asked why one housing problem moves at parliamentary speed while another moves at planning speed, a departmental official said the two timeframes were “not directly comparable” because investor-grade housing involved “complex constituent feedback”.

The official added that the $1.2 billion allocated to Closing the Gap commitments would be rolled out “as soon as practicable”, a phrase he confirmed had no fixed legal definition.

Treasury modelling shows that by the time the first new bathroom is installed in a Tennant Creek house, the investor who would have built it has already restructured into a discretionary trust, sold a Brisbane unit, claimed the new $250 worker offset and gone on a cruise.