Pauline Hanson has launched a fierce attack on the Federal Budget, accusing the Albanese government of “redistributing wealth” through proposed tax reforms.
The One Nation leader made the comments while welcoming newly elected Farrer MP David Farley to Canberra on Wednesday.
Hanson criticised changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, which have sparked debate after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers defended the measures.
On Tuesday night it was announced that the negative gearing tax break will only include new builds, and the capital gains tax discounts have also been reduced, in hopes of addressing generational inequality and easing cost-of-living pressures.
Describing the budget as a “Sheriff of Nottingham budget”, Hanson said the reforms punished Australians who had spent years building wealth.
“To me this is basically taking the wealth from people that have worked hard and I’m talking to people my age. We were the baby boomers,” Hanson told reporters.
“We didn’t go the restaurants and we didn’t have all this. Then we saved and we invested into, wealth to create that wealth.
“I see this as nothing but communism taking over and redistributing wealth.”
Hanson also argued the changes would discourage Australians from saving and investing.
“We are not incentivising people to want to get ahead in this country, to go and work hard, save some money,” she said.
“The young ones are being helped out very much by their parents to actually help them over that line.”
She blamed high housing costs on migration and foreign investment.
“A lot of the young ones aren’t getting married, they’re not having children … mass migration has driven up cost of housing. Foreign investment has driven up cost of housing.”
Hanson also pointed to former Labor treasurer Paul Keating’s attempt to remove negative gearing concessions in the 1980s.
Keating reversed the policy two years later after concerns about pressure on the rental market.
“It didn’t increase housing,” Hanson said.
“He realised that it actually destroyed the market.”
The comments came after Hanson accused the government of overhauling the broader tax system, questioning why assets beyond housing were being targeted.
“If this is all about housing for young people, then why are all our other assets being included such as shares , commercial property , industrial property what’s that got to do with housing?” she wrote on social media on Tuesday night.
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