The CGT Register Watch: One Month After the Budget
In May I pulled the parliamentary register of interests to see how much property federal politicians had declared, just before the budget. The budget has now landed — and it was bigger than anyone expected. Here's the follow-up: what changed, and what the register does (and doesn't) show a month later.
Part 1: If you missed it, the original post — Down a Rabbit Hole: Politicians, Property and the CGT Register — covered the declared property and shareholdings of the 48th Parliament as at May 2026, before budget night. This post picks up where it left off.
First: What the Budget Actually Did
On 12 May 2026, the Treasurer handed down a budget that went further on CGT than most of the pre-budget speculation. Rather than trimming the 50% discount to 25% or 33% as was widely tipped, the government announced it would replace the discount entirely with cost base indexation — effectively a return to the pre-1999 system — plus a new 30% minimum tax rate on capital gains. The changes take effect from 1 July 2027 and apply to individuals, trusts and partnerships. The legislation (the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026) was introduced to Parliament on 28 May.
The headline points, from the budget papers and ATO guidance:
| Measure | Detail |
|---|---|
| 50% CGT discount | Replaced with CPI cost-base indexation from 1 July 2027, for individuals, trusts and partnerships |
| Minimum tax | New 30% minimum tax rate on capital gains made from 1 July 2027 |
| Negative gearing | Limited to new builds from 1 July 2027. Established properties acquired after 7:30pm on 12 May 2026 have rental losses quarantined |
| Grandfathering | Properties acquired before 7:30pm AEST on 12 May 2026 keep current negative gearing treatment |
| Transition | The 50% discount is preserved for gains accrued up to 1 July 2027 — assets are effectively revalued at that date, with the ATO to provide valuation tools |
| Pre-1985 assets | Surprisingly, pre-CGT assets are brought into the new system for gains accruing after 1 July 2027 |
| Exemptions | Main residence exemption unchanged. New residential dwellings can choose either method. Super funds keep their existing one-third discount |
Now: What the Register Shows, One Month On
This was the part I was most curious about. In the first post I documented the 28-day disclosure window and predicted that any transactions made around budget time wouldn't become publicly visible until June or July. So in mid-June, I pulled the full register again and compared every member's "last updated" date against my May snapshot.
The headline finding:
As of mid-June 2026, not a single register entry carries a May or June date. The most recent update on the whole Members' register is 28 April. Parliament resumed sitting on 11 May, the budget was the 12th, and the bill was introduced on the 28th — yet none of the disclosure consequences of that period are publicly visible. This is exactly the lag the 28-day rule plus the tabling cycle produces. The first wave of post-budget disclosures should start appearing through late June and July.
In other words: if any politician bought or sold anything around budget time, we still can't see it. That's not an allegation — it's simply how the system is designed. Transactions from budget week aren't required to be notified until mid-June, and then must wait for the next tabling.
The Fuller April Picture
The complete register scan also turned up April updates I missed in the first post. The full list of members whose register shows an April 2026 update date is now around 21 — roughly one in seven members. Notable additions (marked NEW) include some significant names:
| Member | Party | Updated | Notes from Part 1 data | Register PDF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Rae (Hawke VIC) NEW | ALP | 28 Apr | Most recent update on register | PDF ↗ |
| Patrick Gorman (Perth WA) | ALP | 24 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Angie Bell (Moncrieff QLD) | LNP | 22 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Jodie Belyea (Dunkley VIC) | ALP | 21 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith NSW) NEW | ALP | 21 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Darren Chester (Gippsland VIC) | Nationals | 20 Apr | 4 RE declared | PDF ↗ |
| Helen Haines (Indi VIC) | Ind | 20 Apr | 14 shareholdings | PDF ↗ |
| Cassandra Fernando (Holt VIC) | ALP | 20 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Kara Cook (Bonner QLD) | ALP | 20 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Julian Leeser (Berowra NSW) NEW | Liberal | 20 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Tracey Roberts (Pearce WA) NEW | ALP | 20 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Anika Wells (Lilley QLD) NEW | ALP | 20 Apr | Minister | PDF ↗ |
| Tim Wilson (Goldstein VIC) NEW | Liberal | 16 Apr | Shadow Treasurer · 14 shareholdings, 4 RE in Part 1 | PDF ↗ |
| Jerome Laxale (Bennelong NSW) NEW | ALP | 12 Apr | 17 shareholdings in Part 1 | PDF ↗ |
| Matt Burnell (Spence SA) | ALP | 11 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Leon Rebello (McPherson QLD) NEW | LNP | 10 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Sally Sitou (Reid NSW) NEW | ALP | 9 Apr | 24 shareholdings in Part 1 | PDF ↗ |
| Anthony Albanese (Grayndler NSW) | ALP | 8 Apr | Prime Minister · 3 RE | PDF ↗ |
| Madeleine King (Brand WA) NEW | ALP | 7 Apr | Resources Minister · 7 RE in Part 1 | PDF ↗ |
| Matt Keogh (Burt WA) | ALP | 7 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Dan Repacholi (Hunter NSW) NEW | ALP | 7 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
| Renee Coffey (Griffith QLD) | ALP | 7 Apr | — | PDF ↗ |
The same caveat from Part 1 applies, and it matters: an update date tells you nothing about what was updated. Register updates cover gifts, sponsored travel, share transactions, directorships and more. The only way to know what changed in any individual case is to read the scanned PDF and compare it against the prior version. I haven't done that document-by-document comparison, so no conclusion about any individual member should be drawn from their appearance in this table.
The Big Property Holders: No Movement Visible
For the members with the largest declared property portfolios from Part 1, here are their register dates as of mid-June. Most haven't lodged an update since well before the budget window:
| Member | Party | RE Declared (Part 1) | Register Last Updated | Updated since CGT report (17 Mar)? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michelle Rowland | ALP | 11 | 8 Sep 2025 | No |
| Tony Burke | ALP | 11 | 13 Jan 2026 | No |
| Andrew Charlton | ALP | 10 | 16 Aug 2025 | No |
| Colin Boyce | LNP | 10 | 8 Aug 2025 | No |
| Terry Young | LNP | 10 | 13 Nov 2025 | No |
| Rob Mitchell | ALP | 8 | 7 Aug 2025 | No |
| Meryl Swanson | ALP | 8 | 7 Aug 2025 | No |
| Rick Wilson | Liberal | 8 | 6 Aug 2025 | No |
| Alison Byrnes | ALP | 8 | 23 Mar 2026 | Yes |
| Sarah Witty | ALP | 8 | 2 Apr 2026 | Yes |
| Madeleine King | ALP | 7 | 7 Apr 2026 | Yes |
| Ben Small | Liberal | 7 | 6 Feb 2026 | No |
| Sophie Scamps | Ind | 7 | 19 Aug 2025 | No |
| Tanya Plibersek | ALP | 7 | 19 Feb 2026 | No |
Read plainly: of the fifteen largest declared property holders in the House, twelve have not lodged any register update since the CGT debate began in earnest. Whatever they did or didn't do around the budget, the public record doesn't yet say.
One oddity worth noting: the register lists Treasurer Jim Chalmers' statement as last updated 6 February 2025 — which predates the 48th Parliament itself. That's likely a typo on the APH page (probably 2026), but as published it makes the Treasurer's entry the oldest-dated of any senior minister. His statement PDF is here if you want to check.
The Disclosure Pipeline, Revisited
Part 1 laid out the disclosure chain. Now we can put real dates on it:
A member who transacted on budget night had until roughly 9 June to notify the Registrar. Updates are then processed and the register page updated. So the window we're now entering — mid-June through July — is when the post-budget picture finally becomes public. As of this post, it hasn't started appearing yet.
Did Anyone Need to Sell Anyway?
Here's the part that surprised me most when reading the budget papers and the analysis from the major accounting firms. The pre-budget speculation assumed investors (politicians included) would need to sell before budget night to lock in the 50% discount. The actual policy design made that largely unnecessary:
First, the CGT changes only apply to gains accruing after 1 July 2027 — gains earned up to that date keep the 50% discount, with assets effectively revalued at the transition. Second, the negative gearing changes only affect properties acquired after budget night; everything already held is grandfathered. Third, super funds — including SMSFs — keep their existing one-third discount entirely.
So an investor holding property through the budget lost nothing on their existing position. If the June–July disclosure wave shows property sales by members, the "beat the CGT change" explanation won't actually hold up — the transition design removed that motive. Conversely, the grandfathering of existing holdings means the 458 properties declared across the parliament keep their current negative gearing treatment indefinitely, while anyone buying established property from 13 May onward doesn't. Existing owners — including the parliament that voted on the design — are the protected class under the new rules. That's a structural observation about the policy, not a claim about anyone's intent.
What I'll Watch Next
The plan from here is simple: re-pull the register in late July, after the post-budget notification deadline has fully flowed through and the next tabling has occurred. The specific things to compare against this post's snapshot:
Any member whose register date moves to May or June 2026 — particularly the fifteen large property holders in the table above. Any change in declared property counts on Open Politics between the May snapshot and late July. And the Senate register, which updates on its own schedule with its own 35-day window, and which I haven't yet re-checked in detail.
The PDFs are scanned images, so a proper before/after comparison of individual statements is tedious manual work — but with the May baseline documented in Part 1 and this post, the diff will be straightforward when the new statements land. Part 3 in a couple of months.
Sources
- APH Register of Members' Interests — 48th Parliament (register dates as at mid-June 2026)
- ATO — Tax reform: Boosting home ownership (negative gearing and CGT)
- Budget.gov.au — Negative Gearing and CGT Reform factsheet
- Corrs Chambers Westgarth — CGT and negative gearing amendments (28 May Bill)
- Pitcher Partners — A fundamental shift in CGT
- Open Politics — Real Estate League Table
- Wikipedia — 2026 Australian federal budget
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