Federal Budget 2026 LIVE: Albo gets personal as he issues withering response to question about how he can be trusted after U-turn on tax changes

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down the Federal Budget tonight at 7.30pm AEST - the government's most 'ambitious' yet. The Federal government is widely expected to significantly change negative gearing, the capital gains tax and the tax treatment of trusts. The NDIS will also face cuts. Chalmers has claimed that the Budget will focus on boosting productivity, with the $20,000 instant asset write-off scheme set to be made permanent for small businesses and self-employed tradespeople. It will mark the Albanese Government's fifth budget and its first since Labor's re-election win last year. Follow Daily Mail's live coverage. With just hours to go until the Treasurer's Budget address, Anthony Albanese has mocked several members of the Coalition's shadow cabinet in response to a question about Labor's expected Budget backflip on changes to the Capital Gains Tax (CGT). Before last year's federal election, the Prime Minister was asked if he would change CGT or negative gearing, prompting him to snap that he would not. 'Yes, how hard is it?! For the 50th time.' During Question Time on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor asked Mr Albanese why Australians should trust any future commitments from Labor. Mr Albanese quoted past remarks from prominent Liberal MPs including shadow treasurer Tim Wilson and Canning MP Andrew Hastie in response. 'So many of those opposite, including the Member for Canning (have) said, "If that includes negative gearing, then we should make changes,"' Albanese said. 'The shadow treasurer had this to say: "It's time to be honest. The tax system is screwing over young Australians. Instead, it favours well-off, established interests against those trying to get ahead. In short, if we work hard to get ahead, you get hit hard. If you live off assets, you don't."' Albanese also called out Queensland Liberal MP Garth Hamilton, quoting the Groom MP as saying he was open to a discussion on CGT, and repeated previous comments made by the former MP for Menzies, Keith Wolahan, who was defeated at the last election. Labor MPs have been handed a seven-point cheat sheet to tackle prickly questions over the government's broken promises as they scramble to defend a backflip on negative gearing and capital gains tax in this year's Budget. Just hours before Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivers his fifth budget, the internal talking points, obtained by The Australian, instruct government MPs to defend the shift by insisting Labor is doing 'the right thing with the right policies at the right time'. The cheat sheet also frames the Budget as a responsible one, focused on measures to address intergenerational inequity in the housing market. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.