‘Labor cannot be trusted’: Pauline Hanson takes aim at budget broken promises
Pauline Hanson has blasted Labor over broken promises in the budget, saying the major tax changes show the government “can’t be trusted”.
EXCLUSIVE
Pauline Hanson has blasted Labor over broken promises in the federal budget, saying the sweeping tax changes show the government “cannot be trusted”.
As debate rages over Tuesday’s budget, the key question will be whether the backflip on changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax will swell the growing wave of distrust that sent One Nation crashing into parliament over the weekend.
“This budget shows Labor cannot be trusted with anything they say or promise,” the One Nation leader told news.com.au on Wednesday.
“It’s a Marxist, communist budget which attacks hardworking Australians who have sacrificed and saved to invest.
“Labor is using this budget to build a taxpayer-funded war chest for the next federal election.
“Rather than create intergenerational equity, this Budget creates intergenerational poverty.
“It will drive up inflation, interest rates and mortgage payments — wiping out any relief such as the paltry $5 per week Labor is handing out from next year.
“The changes to negative gearing will also drive up rents, as happened the last time Paul Keating made changes to negative gearing and was forced to reverse them within two years.
“Immigration is projected to increase despite Labor promising to reduce it. The uncounted billions of dollars going to net zero and the Aboriginal industry every year continue.
“Labor has failed on its commitments to the Australian people at the last federal election, and failed to heed the very loud message sent by voters in Farrer on the weekend.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hit the ground running on Wednesday in defence of Labor’s negative gearing and capital gains tax reforms, announced as part of the 2026-27 federal budget after months of speculation.
The government argues the reforms are necessary to tackle a housing affordability crisis that has left younger Australians increasingly locked out of home ownership.
Under the mooted changes, Labor believes around 75,000 younger Australians could be helped into the housing market.
The party famously took negative gearing and capital gains tax reforms to the 2016 and 2019 elections under Bill Shorten — and lost both times.
After the 2019 defeat, Labor abandoned the policies entirely, insisting the controversial tax changes were dead and buried.
Mr Shorten, now Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra, told Sky News on Wednesday he felt “vindicated” — and suggested getting into power may be more important than telling the truth.
“We took bold policies in 2016 and 2019 to the people, we narrowly were defeated,” he said.
“I don’t think it was these ideas in particular which stopped us being defeated. The motivation I had was I could see younger people were being locked out of the market by distortions caused in the tax system.”
Host Laura Jayes asked, “Does integrity still matter in politics, though? Because you were upfront with the Australian public, and you lost. Anthony Albanese wasn’t, and he won.”
“Well … the people vote … but an election is what happens on one day every three years,” Mr Shorten said.
“I think the housing crisis doesn’t wait … the population’s changing, and as the facts change you’re allowed to change your mind.”
Pressed by Jayes on whether Labor should have sought a “mandate”, Mr Shorten waved it off as “a very sort of existential issue”.
“What also matters is getting things done,” he said. “I’m not here to sort of defend or criticise, but you’ve got to be in government to get things done. Our policies were weaponised unfairly against us and so we narrowly missed out.”
Pollster George Hasanakos, head of research at DemosAU, said it “remains to be seen” if the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax “will move the dial with a lot of people.”
“I don’t think there’s any harm to the One Nation vote,” he said.
“My view is not all broken promises end badly. Some do, some don’t, and it depends on two factors — one [is] how many people are affected by the broken promise, so I would suggest something about income taxes or consumption taxes would have more of an effect than what’s being proposed here.
“But also general events that go on. There is a tendency in the political class to overestimate how budgets are perceived by the electorate. It’s only in rare cases that it actually moves the dial.”
Benjamin Moffitt, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Monash University, was not convinced the “broken promises” narrative would help One Nation electorally.
“I don’t actually think this would further empower One Nation,” he said.
“I suspect if it was the Liberal Party that was in power, that might be a different situation … but given where One Nation’s vote is coming from, after the [Farrer] by-election and the South Australian election, it’s still very much drifting Coalition vote rather than coming from Labor.
“You’ve got to assume that One Nation voters or those that are even feeling positively towards One Nation have already decided they don’t trust the government, particularly Labor, so I don’t think this will push anyone towards One Nation.”
Mr Moffitt said One Nation was juggling its own competing narratives on the intergenerational fairness issue.
“The wrinkle here is that One Nation has spoken about more protectionist economic policies, they’ve spoken about the sense that the cards are stacked against young Australians, there’s a sense of inequality already in their message,” he said.
“The only win I could see here in that regard for One Nation is (among) disempowered people who are planning to build their property portfolio to cash in, wanting to have what has been a patently unfair advantage … wanting the gravy train to continue.
“Maybe there are some disaffected boomers that can be picked up there.”
Labor, according to Mr Moffitt, had likely made the calculation that its younger voters would forgive broken promises because they cared more strongly about fairness.
“Obviously, it worked for them with the stage three tax cuts,” he said.
“Yes, there’s the broken promises narrative but I think there’s an understanding that all politicians will break promises.
“I think Labor will have done the research on this, yes it’s a risk. You’ve got two narratives — one is that generationally and economically the cards are stacked against you, the other is the broken promise. One is far more visceral and longstanding and affects a wider bunch of people than the other.”
Mr Moffitt also predicted that the chances of wealthier, inner-city Teal voters jumping ship to One Nation because of the tax changes were slim.
“They’re generally socially progressive but economically closer to the Liberals,” he said.
“People aren’t going to turn from Teal to One Nation. The thing that appeals [to Teal voters] is they are socially progressive.”
Some voters angry at Labor’s budget, however, have declared they will change their vote at the next election.
Nearly 56,000 readers responded to four online polls conducted as part of News Corp’s budget coverage, with 54 per cent saying the budget would change the way they vote.
Fifty per cent indicated they would vote One Nation, 40 per cent the Coalition and just 7 per cent Labor.
The budget comes on the heels of One Nation’s historic win in the regional NSW seat of Farrer.
One Nation’s David Farley defeated fellow frontrunner independent Michelle Milthorpe and Coalition candidates Raissa Butkowski and Brad Robertson to clinch the seat in Saturday’s by-election, triggered by the exit of former opposition leader and long-time Farrer MP Sussan Ley.
Mr Farley held a double-digit lead within two hours of polls closing, aided by the Coalition’s decision to preference One Nation over Ms Milthorpe.
One Nation’s win breaks the Coalition’s 77-year hold on Farrer, a sprawling rural seat which stretches along the Victorian border in southwestern NSW, taking in Albury, Griffith, Leeton, Deniliquin and Wentworth.
The commanding win gives the rising populist party its first federal lower house seat, and comes after a similar outperformance in the South Australia state election in March saw One Nation pick up four lower house and three upper house seats.
After Saturday’s win, One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the party wanted to “go for government” and had the traditional Labor stronghold of western Sydney in its sights.
“We are very much in the mind for the western suburbs of Sydney,” Mr Joyce told Channel 7.
“I was talking to people from the western suburbs of Sydney last night … I was even talking to potential candidates. People are very enthusiastic.”
Modelling by DemosAU in March, based on polling of more than 8400 voters, found One Nation could win as many as 55 seats and replace the Coalition as the country’s main opposition party if an election were held at that point.
DemosAU’s multi-level regression and poststratification (MRP) model shows that One Nation could have a fighting chance in some outer metro Labor seats in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
“There was some movement from the Labor side before this budget,” Mr Hasanakos said.
“Pauline Hanson was seen as the strongest conservative voice amongst older voters who have known her from the start, but there is now an element of ‘she is going to shake things up’, that’s starting to attract other voters.
“They do have a shot in outer metropolitan areas. One thing we need to keep in mind in places like western Sydney and even northern and western Melbourne is there are multicultural areas closer to the CBD, and then there are those fringe areas where you have new housing developments that are not necessarily that multicultural.
“Those seats, they definitely do have a shot. Places like Hawke and McEwen in (outer Melbourne), Lindsay (in western Sydney), north and south of Brisbane.
“I think the only harm going forward to One Nation is really when they have to start saying what they would do in government.
“Even then, they can navigate that. It’s not a fait accompli they will fall over. They’ve got momentum, they’ve got more people behind them. It’s possible they could put out effective policies to get into government.”