At Streem, our in-house team of media researchers and analysts have pored over trends from 54,188 Australian media items from Tier 1 Print, Online, TV, Radio, Podcast, and Magazine sources to understand how Australian media reacted to Labor’s 2026-27 Federal Budget.
While early speculations had earned the Budget largely positive media coverage, our analysis has found that negative coverage increased by 142% after its release between May 12th and May 19th.
One month out from the Budget’s release, the three most-mentioned policy themes within Tier 1, traditional media sources in Australia were Inflation, Fuel Security, and Housing.
Coming off the back of the RBA's third consecutive cash rate hike for the year at its May meeting, these were expectedly spotlighted themes that reflected the growing national conversation on cost of living.
On social media, however, there was another priority conversation.
The gas export tax debate remained the most-discussed theme within Federal Budget mentions on social media between April 6th and May 6th of 2026. Brought to the floor by Independent Senator David Pocock, content creator Konrad Benjamin, and the announcement of a Greens-led Senate inquiry into a proposed 25% tax on Australian gas exports for cost-of-living relief, the media visibility of this issue was significant.
| Traditional Media | Social Media |
|
Inflation - 3964 mentions |
Gas Export Tax - 4146 menitons |
| Fuel Security - 2781 mentions | NDIS - 664 mentions |
| Housing - 2676 mentions | Housing- 605 mentions |
| NDIS - 2551 mentions | Inflation - 546 mentions |
| Capital Gains Tax - 2551 mentions | Capital Gains Tax - 458 mentions |
Streem Data: Australian Online, Print, TV, Radio, Magazine, Podcast Mentions, & X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Bluesky, Forums & Blog Mentions, 6 Apr - 6 May 2026
A viral video from Pocock, which claimed that Australians pay more in beer tax than gas companies pay in export tax, had earned almost 10 million views at the end of the first week of May. As the ABC put it, the situation had “influencer and gas giants in [a] reel contest.”
It also reflected how trending conversations on social media often differ from those in traditional media, and the importance of monitoring both social and traditional media to find comprehensive insights.
While Print, Online, TV, Radio, Magazine, and Podcast media were providing clear indications of what the Budget may deliver, conversations on social media suggested that many Australians had different priorities.
Much closer to Budget Day, media coverage started to grow the day before its release, encouraged by press from PM Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
At a Labor caucus meeting, Albanese warned that a 'responsible' budget requires tough decisions, later defending pre-released details about negative gearing and capital gains tax policy in an ABC Radio interview. The clear themes of the discussion were intergenerational inequality and housing affordability. That same day, Chalmers announced a new measure to reduce youth homelessness, which included around $6000 of extra funds for some young Australians on Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY.
While Pre-Budget coverage skewed positive as metropolitan outlets reported on proposed tax reforms, increased housing spend, and measures to tackle homelessness and anti-semitism, net sentiment crashed quickly on the night of Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ official Budget presentation.
The Budget’s Net Sentiment Score, or NSS, fell from +16% to -28% after its release.
NSS is a human-curated measure used at Streem to ascertain the overall sentiment of a topic that is calculated by subtracting the total percentage of positive media mentions from negative mentions. Using this method, our team found that negative Budget coverage increased by 142% after its release. The Federal Budget's overall NSS for the period between May 9th and May 17th came in at -10%.
This decline was largely driven by criticism of Labor’s significant tax reforms from business and finance journalists, as well as the Opposition.
Chart made with Flourish
Nearly half of all post-Budget coverage was negative or trending negative, dominated by criticism of Labor’s Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Negative Gearing reform.
Leader of the Opposition Angus Taylor’s Budget Reply focused on his party's plans to cap net overseas migration each year at the number of housing completions, and implement tax bracket indexation, receiving prominent coverage across News Corp, Seven West Media, and Nine titles. In addition, Australian business leaders’ warnings that the Budget’s tax reform would stifle investment were reported across News Corp, Seven West Media, and the Australian Financial Review.
Widely reported as a landmark reform plan centred on housing affordability, tax reform and financial sustainability, Budget themes which earned most media items in traditional, Tier 1 Australian media were Cost of Living & Tax Reforms, Housing Policies, and Productivity & Investment.
While Cost of Living and Tax Reforms had a comparable media item volume to Housing in Tier 1 Australian media, coverage of the former trended significantly more negative than the latter.
Of all Tax Reform media items, 55.7% were classed as either negative or trending negative. As is clear in the chart above, negative reform media items outnumbered the separate media item totals for Productivity & Investment, Social Services, Welfare & NDIS, Energy & Oil Policies, Defence, and Immigration Policies.
For Housing, the split between negative, neutral, and positive coverage was almost a neat third for each. When housing was discussed, it was also frequently within a broader discussion of Tax overhauls rather than as an isolated topic. Where reforms were criticised, they were often neutralised by a consideration for the potential benefits for housing affordability.
Other themes with a somewhat balanced split between sentiment types included Productivity & Investment, and Defence. Otherwise, two-thirds of both Social Services, Welfare & NDIS coverage and Immigration Policies coverage were neutral.
The conversation on Energy & Oil Policies was the only major pillar of Budget coverage that received mostly trending positive or positive sentiment (49.35%), strengthened by a $15bn fuel security package and policy action to support a renewable energy transition.
| Sentiment | Key Coverage |
|
Positive |
Led by News Corp reporting on a fuel package announcement, an anti-semitism fund, and a program targeting Indigenous family violence. |
| Trending Positive | Changes to the CGT and negative gearing drove trending positive Cost of Living & Tax Reforms and Housing Policies coverage: → The West Australian and News Corp titles reported on Chalmers’ comments that the tax reforms will rebalance the system → News Corp quoted Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan’s support for the changes, as she called it a win for first-home buyers, and H&R Block Australia’s statements that the measure will help overhaul Australia’s tax system by rewarding productivity |
| Neutral |
CGT and negative gearing changes also led neutral Cost of Living & Tax Reforms news as various outlets reported on the mixed reception to the reforms: → To illustrate how Budget funds are allocated, News Corp converted the figures to a $100 scale, under which the NDIS accounted for $6.61 |
| Trending Negative & Negative |
Negative gearing and CGT changes fuelled both trending negative and negative news, with much of the criticism aimed at the Labor Government for breaking their election promise, contributing to the negative Cost of Living & Tax Reforms sentiment: → News Corp, The West Australian and ACM heavily featured criticisms from various stakeholders, including business owners like Boost Juice, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, home owners, and finance expert Mark Bouris → News Corp also reported on both One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson’s criticism of the intergenerational policy changes and the backlash over introducing the Working Australian Tax Offset → The ABC reported on concerns from farmers and environmental groups regarding cuts to pest and weed control programs, generating negative Productivity & Investment news → SBS outlined Greens Senator Jordan-Steele-John's criticisms of NDIS changes, driving the negative Social Services, Welfare & NDIS coverage |
Analysing 10,261 posts through social media monitoring, automated sentiment was 14% more neutral, 11% less positive, and just 3% less negative than traditional media.
In contrast to a 50% neutral Automated Social Media sentiment, the Budget’s NSS of -10% within traditional media over the same nine-day period between May 9th and May 17th represents the window of opportunity that lies between when earned media drops and when public opinion settles.
With traditional media’s net sentiment shifting so quickly in the days following the Budget release, social media’s average sentiment was slower to tilt negative.
Informative content performed well on social media platforms as a means to decipher complex policy.
Posts with high engagement were often about breaking down difficult concepts like CGT or Negative Gearing that may have personal impacts for audiences. When the Budget was released on May 12th, a Reddit discussion on r/australia was opened to analyse the announcements. As of June 4th, there have been 877 upvotes and 848 comments, with users asking and answering questions, as well as uploading their input. Spaces like Reddit are often where opinions are either validated or changed, unpacking complex policy in layman’s terms to make these concepts more consumable and personally relevant. Using Reddit for market research in particular is a rich, cost-effective source of insight that has become a mainstay of modern media monitoring strategies.
For B2C brands in a relevant sector during events like the Budget, there are brand-positive communications opportunities. By providing explainer content on platforms where there is demand, trust can be built with audiences.
Other trending, explanatory content included May 14th reporting from Cheek Media on their Instagram page about housing tax reform. The Guardian also shared infographics on Instagram comparing tax policies for housing on the 15th of May.
The most unexpected social media moment came from satirical outlet Betoota Advocate, which published viral content on Facebook and Instagram post-Budget that exaggerated political reactions and social tensions around the tax package. The sardonic posts targeted backlash from the business and property sectors. One example of this backlash came from the director of Henderson Advocacy, Jack Henderson, a well-known property investor and buyers’ agent with 249K followers on Instagram, who began printing hats with slogans like “Greedy Landlord,” “Raise Rents,” and “I Heart Negative Gearing.”
Discussions of tax reform on X ended up generating the highest volume of social media coverage. X as a platform continues to be the home of politicians and politically active audiences. Three pieces of content that drove conversation on social media included:
Ultimately, the leading Budget topics overall measured by social media mention volume were Housing, Capital Gains Tax, and Cost of Living.
Bespoke Media Analysis reports are entirely human-curated, providing an in-depth analysis of media coverage towards any given brand, topic, or conversation in the media. Streem’s bespoke analysis service allows the flexibility and nuance that automated analysis cannot, including human-rated sentiment analysis to assess media reputation, commentary alongside findings, trend analysis over time and key insights throughout to allow a comprehensive understanding of media coverage and further inform media strategy.
Get in touch with the team today to find out how in-depth analysis reporting can further inform media strategy and assist in data-driven decisions, at insights@streem.com.au.