Jim Chalmers says budget to address economic anxieties ‘driving’ Australians to One Nation

One Nation has cast a shadow over the federal budget and influenced decisions to reform negative gearing and taxes, with Jim Chalmers admitting many Australians are feeling economic anxieties that are “driving them to consider” rightwing populist parties.

The treasurer and Anthony Albanese have conceded that many people are locked out of the housing market and that the problem is getting worse, not better, under Labor. With Pauline Hanson’s party winning a historic byelection in Farrer – its first lower house seat win in its 30-year history – the government was alive to the threat of a populist wave of grievance similar to those in the United States, Britain and Europe.

“I think the housing market and the tax system is not working for a lot of Australians, and tonight, we seek to address that,” Chalmers said on Tuesday morning, hours before delivering his fourth budget.

“At the same time, it will respond to a lot of the pressures and anxieties that people are feeling, which is driving them to consider some of the parties outside the mainstream.”

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One Nation has recently been polling a close second, behind Labor, in published opinion polls, nabbing up to 25% of the primary vote.

In Farrer, the One Nation’s David Farley won nearly 40% of the primary vote. The Liberals and Nationals scored 22% combined in a seat where former MP Sussan Ley had won a 43% primary vote last year.

Albanese and his senior ministers have recently been talking more about how to combat a rising threat on the ultra-conservative fringe, including by restoring trust in government and delivering material improvements to people’s lives.

The prime minister, Chalmers and other government sources have all but confirmed major changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax and the treatment of trusts in a bid to tilt the economic balance back toward ordinary voters rather than investors and wealthy Australians.

Asked if Tuesday’s budget had one eye on One Nation, Chalmers said it was an economic document, not a political strategy, but that the government was trying to fix the same type of problems that were fuelling the Hanson vote.