NSW Premier Chris Minns tax claims slammed as ‘hypocrisy on steroids’

NSW Premier Chris Minns is copping a mauling from the housing sector after he turbocharged Australia’s furious tax debate when taking aim at Anthony Albanese’s controversial budget measures.

Labor leader Minns is at loggerheads with his federal counterparts Prime Minister Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers after the 46-year-old NSW leader took aim at the Commonwealth over a lack of action on income tax bracket creep.

Now, the Real Estate Institute of NSW is the third man into the verbal brawl saying the NSW government, including Minns who was voted in as Premier in 2023, has done nothing to ‘meaningfully’ address stamp duty tax brackets for property transfers in the state in 40 years.

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No News.com, No News Wire, No The Australian- EMBARGO MUST CHECK WITH DESK BEFORE USE Daily Telegraph – 16 May, 2026 NSW Premier Chris Minns holds a press conference in Mortdale Memorial Park. Photo Jeremy Piper

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Albanese and Chalmers have tried to push their budget measures about cutting negative gearing on homes and pushing up capital gains tax as attempts to ease Australia’s housing crisis.

However experts are divided as to whether the measures will actually work.

In NSW, stamp duty on homes, which was introduced almost 50 years ago, has long been seen by the housing industry as an impediment to people getting their first home and even second home because of the onerous cost it adds to property.

It is also argued stamp duty affects supply because people are unwilling to sell and buy again and perhaps downsize because of the exorbitant cost the stamp duty adds, which is roughly around $40,000 duty for every million dollars paid for the home.

In the most recent financial year, through to May 2026, the NSW government raked in $12.52 billion in stamp duty or transfer duty.

“When it was introduced in 1986, the legislation stated that increased rates for conveyances would only affect properties worth more than $300,000 and thus would not affect the average home purchaser,” Real Estate Institute of NSW (REINSW) CEO Tim McKibbin said on Friday.

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‘Hypocrisy on steroids’ – REINSW CEO Tim McKibbin has taken aim at Minns.

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“Today’s median dwelling price in Sydney is around $1.3 million, meaning every purchaser is significantly impacted, which is completely at odds with the original intention of stamp duty.

“The stamp duty tax brackets have not been amended in 40 years despite property values rising a huge amount over that time.

“For the NSW Premier to be critical of the Federal Government for not addressing income tax bracket creep, in the face of NSW not having redressed decades of stamp duty bracket creep, is astonishing.

“In his Federal Budget speech last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers reported that Australian house prices have risen by more than 400 per cent since 1999. Why has NSW not adjusted stamp duty brackets to take account of that 400 per cent increase?

“It is hypocrisy in steroids.

“Unless, at long last, property buyers in New South Wales can finally expect stamp duty bracket creep to be addressed in next month’s state Budget?”

McKibbin’s comments are sure to again stir debate over the role transfer duty plays in NSW’s troubled housing market.

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The NSW government rake in $12.5bn from stamp duty in the last financial year. Picture: iStock

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All states and territories across Australia charge some form of stamp duty when properties change hands.

But what makes the issue more headline grabbing in NSW, the state with the most valuable property markets, is the sheer volume of money the Minns government is raking in.

Minns earned the ire of the Albanese Government earlier this week when he NSW Premier Chris Minns appeared to criticise the federal government over a lack of action on bracket creep, saying the current top marginal tax rate of 47 per cent results in workers spending half the week working for the government.

Just days after Angus Taylor’s pledge to fix tax brackets, Mr Minns said families in his state were being “stung” as pay rises pushed workers into higher tax brackets.

At a press conference today, he was asked if he would have preferred personal income tax cuts to have been contained in the federal budget.

Plenty are unhappy with Anthony Albanese’s new tax plans. Picture: The Daily Telegraph / Martin Ollman

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Mr Minns said the state’s pay deals with nurses, paramedics and teachers were hurting their take home pay.

“Whether it’s in this budget or it’s in the future, we do need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to hand more money back to working Australians,” he said.

“The top marginal rate of 47 per cent, as I said in parliament last week, you’re working Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday for yourself, and then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the government.

“In a general sense, whether it’s now or in the future, we do need to make sure we’re taking urgent action when it comes to personal income taxes because at the moment, a lot of working families are getting stung.”

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