Anthony Albanese refuses to apologise, Angus Taylor promises immigration crackdown, Pauline Hanson emboldened

A prime minister who refuses to apologise for breaking an election promise, a Liberal opposition leader who is now singing from the One Nation play book – and an empowered Pauline Hanson who reminds us she’s coming for Australia. It’s been a remarkable week in Federal politics — a fascinating window into the characters, values and policies of our leaders who will shape our futures. Let’s start with Anthony Albanese. Albo’s word is no longer his bond — reneging on a promise he made at the last election not to tamper with negative gearing and capital gains tax rules. Voters will now rightfully ask: How can we trust anything this prime minister says from here on end? Foolishly, Albanese is refusing to acknowledge he broke an election promise by playing word games and saying he changed tact for the good of young Australians who want a piece of the Great Australian Dream of home ownership. Does anyone seriously believe that Albanese and his Treasurer Jim Chalmers have not been secretly planning these changes for some time — Bill Shorten played the same card in 2019. Did Albanese wait until he’d won two terms of government and had a bumper majority in the House of Representatives before revealing his true plans for property and asset taxes? These are the sorts of questions Australians will rightfully ask themselves. And this time, there’s no point Albanese getting shitty with journalists who push him on these types of issues like he did at the last election when he was pushed on negative gearing and CGT — these are legitimate questions he needs to answer. Albanese, in this Federal Budget, has cast himself as some sort of Robin Hood — taking from the rich and giving to the poor. The only problem is it’s not just the super-rich who use tax breaks to accumulate wealth. There are lots of ordinary mums and dads who have also used CGT and negative gearing to get ahead. Albanese and Chalmers claim the changes they have introduced will drive investment in new-home builds. In their Budgets, the Albanese-Cook governments talked about 34,000 new homes over eight years for WA as part of a $2 billion spend on infrastructure. But here is the question: Who will build these supposed new homes in WA? Albanese you may remember came out two years ago and set a target of 1.2 million new homes across the nation over five years — WA’s target about 120,000, or about 25,000 new builds a year. But according to HIA WA boss Michael McGowan, two years in WA has completed just 43,000 homes out of the 50,000 proposed under the targets. “HIA forecasts that to reach the 1.2 million homes target we need 80,000 more trades across the nation,” McGowan said on Friday. “If you take a 10 per cent slice for WA that’s about an 8000 top-up.” This financial year, WA asked Albo for 5000 skilled migration visas under a Commonwealth program — and got 3400. No wonder Roger Cook is offering any Kiwi or Eastern States tradie $10,000 each to come to WA. He may need to throw in a car and free tickets to the footy. And things are about to get worse. Budget papers show WA’s population will swell from 3.1 million to 3.3 million in four years time. More houses will be needed. Angus Taylor’s housing crisis solution? Well, in Thursday’s Budget reply speech he said a government he leads would deliver one of the biggest cuts to immigration in Australian history. Numbers of cuts please Angus? And from which countries? Taylor has also promised to crack down on welfare for non-citizens. Trying to also reposition the Liberals as the party of fairer taxes, Taylor has also promised to index income tax brackets to inflation. Meanwhile, Hanson — who reckons Angus is ripping off One Nation’s policies — is getting more empowered by the day. Poor old former Nat Barnaby Joyce: He would have thought Hanson was retiring and he’d be One Nation numbero uno at the 2028 election. Maybe he needs Pauline to Please Explain.