Ryan Bridge: Jim Chalmers' Budget is hardly a recipe for affordable housing

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · May 12, 2026 · 1m · transcript

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

That's basically the message to anyone worried about a capital gains tax in New Zealand.

In Canberra last night Jim Chalmers' budget was pitched as a 're-balancing' of 'intergenerational inequality'.

Fewer young people own homes in Australia, so they've pit grandkids against grandparents and made tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains.

Negative gearing is where landlords make a loss on their rental property - income (rents) are less than expenses.

They can claim the difference as a tax deduction on other income.

This, by the way, is…