Is the Howard era over? Albanese and Chalmers are betting the budget it is | Frank Bongiorno

With baby boomers outnumbered on the electoral roll, Labor are finally emerging from their shell to address intergenerational unfairness

If, as widely expected, the federal budget winds back the tax benefits attached to property investment and family trusts, it will amount to a breakthrough that has eluded every federal government since the Howard era. The achievement will be symbolic as well as material.

Even Scott Morrison, as treasurer, flirted with some winding back of the excesses of negative gearing concessions to property investors. Labor’s modest proposals for reform at the 2019 election were part of the mix that cost Bill Shorten victory at that election.