Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down his fourth federal budget on May 12 and it is widely expected to pare back incentives for property investors, although full details of the planned changes have not been revealed.
The government is positioning itself as tackling intergenerational inequality, and the growing support for populist political parties, with changes it says will favour working Australians.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday refused to offer assurances incentives for property investors, including negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, would be grandfathered as part of possible changes.
"Everything that we do is focused on those immediate needs," he told ABC News.
"We understand that people are under financial pressure.
"What we want to do is to hand down a budget that assists with those immediate issues, but also looks towards those long-term frameworks of how we set Australia up for the future."
Asked if his government would be harshly judged for changes Labor did not take to the 2025 election, Mr Albanese said "voters will make their decisions".
"My job and the job of the government is to put in place measures that are in the interest of the Australian public," he said.
"Not necessarily to just make easy decisions - to do the hard decisions that are in the national interest - and my government has shown a preparedness to do that."
Coalition MPs have largely opposed changes to capital gains tax, arguing the shift could reduce the supply of new homes.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan said he wanted to see the details of Labor's policies, but he did not support "extra tax increases".
Opposition finance spokeswoman Claire Chandler also voiced her resistance to any changes that would lead to higher taxes.
"My default response as a Liberal is to say, well, we shouldn't be supporting more taxes on something that we want to see more of, and we do want to see more housing," she told Sky News.
Labor has confirmed any decision on potentially extending the halving of fuel excise would come after the budget.
The three-month cut to the tax kicked in at the start of April, slashing the cost of petrol and diesel by 26.3 cents a litre as the government responded to soaring prices caused by the US-led war on Iran.
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said he expected a call on the extension to be made after the budget was handed down.
"We need to really see how the overseas conflict evolves, how prices evolve for oil," he said.
"It is doing what it was intended to do. It's not a silver bullet, but it is providing material support for people."
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