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Joining me live now is employment workplace relations minister Amanda Rishworth from Adelaide. Amanda Rishworth, thanks so much for your time. Let me start by asking about the budget and the wash up. Do you have any fears in terms of these pro broken promises costing the government and perhaps directing votes to One Nation? Well, firstly, I would say Andrew, I'm uh very uh proud of this budget. This budget is a reforming budget. It's about rebalancing uh the tax system along with uh many other things in fuel security for example and also support for small
uh and medium business and uh so there's some really key elements of this budget. Um but this is fundamentally if we're talking about the tax changes um about rebalancing ensuring that uh workers uh get a fair go and homeowners get a fair go. Um, reform is never easy. Uh, reform is always hard. Um, but we're up for it and um, we believe that this is the right thing for the country, what we've got to get done. Now, the PM didn't see it as necessary to apologize for the broken promises. Why does the government feel it can say just one year after an election, things have changed and we can increase taxes?
Well, let's be really clear firstly. um this is about rebalancing the system. So we are giving uh more tax cuts um to workers as a result of this broad tax package. So I think that's really important to recognize as why we're changing the tax settings um over the Ford estimates workers get the benefit of that through the working Australian tax offset. But I'd also say Andrew I think it's fair to say that we have really made housing a focus. Made housing a focus. we've put a 47 billion dollars. Um, and we it's clear we still need to do more and that's why we've made these changes. That's why we've looked at the tax system and say it's just still not working. We need to
make these changes. And so, uh, that they are hard decisions to make. Um, but I think, um, you know, history, if we didn't actually make some changes, will mark us down as having the opportunity to do something about it. And if we hadn't done anything about it, I think we'd be marked down in history. Are you confident they'll pass the Senate? Look, obviously negotiations are still going on. Um uh I you know, I'm not going to get into uh the numbers um in the Senate, but I think we've got a very compelling proposition um to put to the Parliament and to put to the Senate. And so I would hope that all senators genuinely engage in this um and actually look at what the benefits are through
this reform um and encourage them to engage in that process. What do you make of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon yesterday describing capital gains tax as a wrecking ball tax he never introduced to his country? Well, um, we've got two different countries with two different tax systems. Let's be really clear. Uh, New Zealand has a different tax system to our tax system. Capital gains uh, tax has existed in our country as we've been discussing for a very long time. There's been changes along the way and we are looking at capital gains and changing that to rebalance it and make it fairer. Um but um just to be really clear, I don't think you can compare
apples with oranges when we're talking about different tax systems and different countries. It's a bit of a shot at your government though, isn't it? These comments. Oh, look, I uh would suggest that neither leaders uh would seek to get involved in domestic politics and quite frankly, it was a very warm meeting and demonstrates the good relationship we have. um with uh New Zealand, our very uh close neighbor, but um I wouldn't suggest it was a shot across the bow. I would uh suggest that uh both uh leaders um are operating in a completely different tax system in their country. But he says it's a wrecking ball. The tax you're upping that tax. You're taking the discount off.
Do you think Well, you actually are. Like you are increasing your tax from that tax. Well, what we are doing is changing the way that capital gains is calculated and uh looking at what is an appropriate tax rate for that. Of course, we are rebalancing which brings in more revenue to suggest which is an upping of the tax suggests that the change is just a tax hike. It is a rebalancing of the tax system and uh that extra tax that we're getting is being redirected to workers. workers will be better off in this country as a result of these tax changes. Yeah. But not over 10 years, over the forward estimates. But anyway, let's move on. What did you make of Barnaby Joyce's gaff on policy concerning permanent residents and homes?
Oh, well, look, it really demonstrated to me just the confusion that One Nation has and the chaos potentially uh that uh One Nation will bring. I mean, we didn't just have Barnaby Joyce. There were other members of One Nation that couldn't answer the question, couldn't tell us how much it's going to cost. There excuses about why that couldn't be costed. So, to be honest, I think um if One Nation wants to be taken seriously, they've got to do the work. And unfortunately what we saw here was uh you know uh one nation being able to identify a problem but be absolutely chaotic in what that solution could look like.
