Address to the AFR Property Summit

‍Address to the Australian Financial Review Property Summit - 02 September 2025

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Jim Chalmers has been the Treasurer of Australia for one thousand, one hundred and ninety-eight days.

In that time, he has sent the Australian economy backwards.

Business investment is through the floor.

The private sector is on its knees.

And the Australian dream of home ownership is shot.

The numbers paint a grim picture.

Productivity is in a downward spiral - Down 1% in the past 12 months.

And down 5% since Labor came to office. 

The national debt is at record highs - set to hit $1 trillion dollars for the first time ever.

If you can believe it - under Labor, Australia is paying $50,000 in interest every single minute.

In their first term, the Albanese Government introduced over 5,000 regulations and 400 laws, bringing with them a $5 billion compliance cost.

Labor’s economic mismanagement has an economy-wide impact, but it’s particularly felt in the housing sector.

When the Coalition was last in Government, Australia averaged 200,000 new homes built a year.

Under Labor, it has crashed to barely 170,000.

Labor’s national housing accord - Their signature housing policy to build 1.2 million homes by 2029 - is a dead duck. Leaked Treasury advice confirms the government will not reach this target.

Unfortunately, this Government has repeatedly put good politics in front of good policy.

Today I want to talk to you about what the Treasurer claimed to be tax reform in his June Press Club address.

The “reform” the Treasurer was pointing to was not actually reform. Most of them were tax grabs or fiddles. This is a terrible foundation upon which to have a “reform” debate. 

Since that time we have had Labor’s Economic Reform Roundtable. It is truly an unprecedented feat to present yourself as an aspirational, reforming government dedicated to cutting red tape and boosting productivity -

While at the same time, re-regulating industrial relations and housing, raising taxes, killing productivity, and overseeing a 6% decline in living standards - the biggest drop in the developed world.

If Dr Chalmers is serious about introducing reform, his policies must do three things:

They must boost investment and incentive to work.

They must boost the competitive position of the nation.

And they must improve the efficiency and productivity of our tax system - for both business and people

The Treasurer claims he has done these things in six areas. I will run through them for you:

1. Personal income tax cuts 

The previous plan legislated by the Coalition established a flat rate of tax for everyone between $45,000 and $200,000 of 30 cents in the dollar. 

Chalmers then reinserted the 37 cents tax bracket, which was abolished by the previous Parliament. That meant from 1 July 2024, Australians earning between $135,000 and $190,000 paid 37 cents, not 30 cents. 

Jim Chalmers put bracket creep back into the economy, after Australians voted to get rid of it.

Jim Chalmers put higher taxes back in the system, and reduced the incentive to work.

Under Chalmers, there will be 2.6 million people paying higher taxes by the end of the decade.

These are numbers that have been generated by the Parliamentary Budget Office. 

This is not tax reform.

2. Tax cuts for small business

The Coalition cut the small business tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent from 1 July 2021. The rate of company tax has not been changed by Labor since their election in 2022.

If The Treasurer is talking about the small business instant asset write off, this was actually cut by Labor from $30,000 to $20,000.

It creates a higher tax burden for small business owners. 

This is not tax reform. 

3. Build to Rent

Chalmers says this is a reform. How ridiculous.

This policy is a tax cut for foreigners who want to build and own Australian housing - that is not the Australian dream of home ownership, it’s the Australian nightmare of lifelong renting.

The Treasurer has​ reduced the withholding tax rate of 15% which applies to eligible fund payments made to a foreign resident of an information exchange country, from a managed investment trust.

The owner of the trust must hold the build to rent property in their portfolio for 15 years.

While the Coalition strongly supports foreign investment, I am unconvinced supercharging institutional investment of Australia’s housing stock in a perpetual rent cycle is desirable. 

Australians want to own homes, and while build to rent can be part of the mix, it doesn’t require a tax cut. Accordingly, I have sought to disallow this regulation in the Senate.

Once again, this is not tax reform.

4. Production tax incentives

This is part of the government’s picking winners plan where Future Made in Australia allows Canberra to give a tax rebate to hydrogen and critical minerals businesses. 

It operates as an offset which is claimed in a company tax return. It is perhaps an acknowledgement that the company tax rate is too high. It is unclear whether the government has a view on the headline rate. 

Either way, when the Government picks winners, they throw good money after bad.

One thing which is certain is this tax offset has been designed to entrench the unions in these hydrogen and critical minerals businesses. The Community Benefit Principles will likely include compulsory unionism and increased industrial relations complexity. These will likely deter investment and unnecessarily increase costs of production.

This is not tax reform. 

5. Reforms to the PRRT and multinational tax

On the PRRT, It’s a timing change - a bring forward of offshore royalties but no additional dollars. The resources sector simply pays tax at a different time. 

The multinational tax rules give a great example of the government increasing red tape whilst promising to remove it. 

The country by country reporting regime goes beyond what comparable jurisdictions have in place, such as the European Union. It even exceeds OECD Standards. When Andrew Leigh says these are “world leading” he means he’s making Australia a leader in red tape.

Funnily enough, he didn’t mention the 30 million dollar increase in compliance costs his own impact statement estimated these new laws will impose on business.

Australia should seek to align these reporting requirements with international standards. Labor introduced over 5,000 new regulations and 400 new laws last term. These reporting rules are some of the worst.

It is not tax reform.

6. Super tax

Taxing Australia’s unrealised capital gains is a terrible idea. This tax is also not indexed - another shocker. You know when Labor is at odds with both Paul Keating and the ACTU something is a-miss.

Why would anyone put an extra dollar into super if the average worker faces a future tax on gains they haven’t received?

Tax unreleased gains introduces a dangerous principle into Australian tax law. It will also stuff the future of startup and disruptive businesses in Australia - an outcome Labor ought to know.  

Of course there is also an integrity issue - the Treasurer wants to set the rules for the Prime Minister’s pension after the bill has passed Parliament. This is an unmanageable conflict of interest. Mr Chalmers should put the details of defined benefit schemes into the bill itself. 

This is not tax reform.

As you can see, none of those six things meet the reform criteria of boosting investment and incentive to work… boosting the competitive position of the nation… or improving the efficiency and productivity of our economic system.

Three years of Labor - zero tax reform.

So what does the future hold?

Post-Roundtable, the government now want to turn children against their parents by further raiding superannuation while slamming taxes on family trusts.

Labor always try and raise taxes. It is the only way they know how to govern.

Raising taxes would not only be the Prime Minister breaking a key election promise, but it would also be terrible economic management.

Taxing your way out of a spending problem is not tax reform. 

Australia is going out of business.

Our economy is broken.

No wonder we’re here discussing the housing crisis.

If you were a developer, would you build a house?

Not only do you have to deal with a nationwide skills shortage alongside record high construction and energy costs, you also have to compete with your own Government.

The same Labor Government that now promises to cut red tape, went to the election promising to become a housing developer, and a housing insurer!

Their desire to crowd out the private sector is unmatched.

Indeed, around 80% of new jobs created in the last two years were in the non-market sector, even though it makes up just 30% of employment.

The vast majority of new jobs created by this government are paid for by the government. That is not sustainable, and not what we would expect in a free market economy like ours.

Jim Chalmers talks of a private sector-led economic recovery.

His first three years as Treasurer has put paid to that.

The Treasurer is getting the fundamentals of economic management wrong.

I am clear-eyed on helping Australia overcome our economic challenges.

Labor is right to say productivity is a national priority — on that, we agree. But productivity is flagging under the pressure of Labor’s deadweight red tape. 

In housing, Labor is obviously in a terrible state.

Their Housing Australia Future Fund has spent $10 billion to build a few thousand homes. It is one of the biggest public policy disasters of my generation.

Labor have overseen the biggest rise in population since the 50s alongside a historic collapse in housing construction, but their mixed messaging and confusion can be perfectly summed up through their management of the National Construction Codes.

We campaigned last election on freezing the National Construction Code. Labor accused us of wanting to build “shoddy homes.”

Now they say they want to freeze it themselves!

The Treasurer seems totally confused - is he for his own red tape or against it? 

Under his direction, the NCC is now almost 3,000 pages. It’s never been longer. This is just one part of Labor’s red tape legacy.

Under Labor, Australia is regulating for risk, not for growth.

We need clear thinking from the government. This could be a rare opportunity to streamline regulation and set Australia up for the next decade. 

We are trying to be constructive, but Labor must reflect on their own record - on red tape and on taxation.  

Productivity reform means doing the hard things — not just hosting roundtables or commissioning reports. 

Cutting red tape and actual tax reform would incentivise and reward hard work and investment. That’s what Australia needs. 

If Labor wants to work constructively, the Coalition is here but right now, the government has its head in the sand when it comes to its record.

Red tape has exploded and the tax burden has hit workers and small businesses like a sledgehammer.

Hard working Australians are paying the price

[Ends]

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