Comedian Dave Hughes has unleashed at the federal government over changes to capital gains tax (CGT) and negative gearing, saying the budget “tipped Australia over the edge” and people are “angry like I’ve never seen before”.

The lifelong Labor voter — who was nevertheless outspoken against the Victorian government during Covid — has stunned fans with a series of videos going scorched earth on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in recent weeks.

Speaking to news.com.au, Hughes said last month’s budget had finally tipped him over the edge, even though he supported Labor at the last election.

“I’ve always been a Labor voter,” the 55-year-old Aussie TV icon said.

“My dad was a factory worker, mum’s a nurse, so I grew up in that sort of working-class family and carried that through my whole life, long after I became financially independent.”

The stand-up comic is currently on a mammoth 36-stop tour of Australia, recently doing shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra as well as Swan Hill, Cowes and Warburton in Victoria.

MORE: Tax blow-up fuels record Aus landlord exodus

“I’m walking down the street every day now, people are saying ‘keep going’,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. People are angry. Anyone who’s got a business is angry, no doubt about it. There are no businesses who think this is a good idea.”

Hughes joins a chorus of business leaders and experts who claim the sweeping changes to CGT and negative gearing will cripple investment and do little to alleviate the housing crisis.

The reforms currently before parliament, billed by Labor as the biggest change to Australia’s tax system in 25 years, will replace the blanket 50 per cent CGT discount with inflation indexation and restrict negative gearing, which allows property investors to deduct rental losses from other income, starting from July 1 next year.

Additionally, CGT will now apply at a minimum 30 per cent, double the previous 16 per cent minimum rate for those earning less than $45,000.

CGT is the tax paid on profit made when selling an asset held longer than 12 months, including property, shares, businesses and crypto.

MORE: Taxes ‘bookend’ horror home buying journey

Taxpayers pay capital gains tax at their top marginal tax rate, which for high-income earners is 47 per cent, minus the discount.

With a top marginal tax rate of 47 per cent, the 50 per cent discount meant the maximum capital gains tax rate was capped at 23.5 per cent.

The new indexation method removes that cap, meaning as a general rule the maximum effective rate could rise towards the full top marginal rate of 47 per cent for assets that gain value well above inflation.

The Treasurer introduced Labor’s tax package as an omnibus bill to the House of Representatives on Thursday. The government is in ongoing consultations on potential carve-outs for small businesses and start-ups.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil on Monday branded the backlash to the reforms as “completely out of proportion” but conceded it was in the nation’s best interests for carve-out consultations to wrap up “speedily”.

Mr Chalmers and Mr Albanese both repeatedly promised before the last election that changes to CGT and negative gearing were off the table.

“The budget has tripped people’s wires — it’s tripped my wires,” Hughes said.

“That budget was bang out of order. You cannot make a change to the tax system that big without taking it to the election.

“The level of lying that took place, it’s so out of control. So many people made economic decisions taking these politicians at face value. There’s going to be so many people with houses they paid way too much money for now.

“You can’t bald-faced lie before an election. Chalmers and Albo were asked 100 times, they looked into the camera and said no.”

He added, “Jim Chalmers’ hero is Paul Keating. The only election Paul Keating ever won was when John Hewson said he was going to bring in a GST. Keating ran on that being a bad idea. He thought it was a good idea but he knew he couldn’t win an election on it.”

Hughes said rising interest rates and inflation had smashed the housing market even prior to the budget.

“You cannot sell a house in Melbourne,” he said. “In my suburb [Bayside], every house has had a board up wanting to sell for months, even before the budget. The percentage correction happening in my area is f**king massive. It’s bleak.”

He predicted a massive fall in stamp duty revenue for state coffers.

“Very, very few houses are selling,” he said.

“Anyone who doesn’t have to sell won’t sell. People who are considering buying houses are thinking, the rules are going to change at any moment.”

Hughes denied that his outrage was tied to his own property investments.

“I’ve got no debt whatsoever, I’ve never been a debt person,” he said.

“All my investments are grandfathered or whatever, [but] obviously future investments … you just don’t want to invest in Australia anymore. Why would you? That’s a real issue.

“This country has got to start developing stuff. We don’t make anything anymore. You cannot have the whole population working for the government.

“We have the highest per capita public workforce anywhere in the world. They’re not producing anything, they’re relying on taxes.”

He said the new minimum 30 per cent CGT would slug young people trying to build wealth.

“I try to tell my children to get ahead of the game,” he said.

“My son works at Woolies, I tell him instead of spending your money buy some shares so you can watch those shares grow in value.

“Any low-income earner who wants to try get ahead by buying some shares, now 30 per cent goes to the government if you ever need to sell.

“They have taken away all incentive to save, to invest, to innovate, to take risk.

“Business owners are f**king heroes. Anyone who employs people and has to deal with all the BS of payroll tax, et ceterea, work their asses off, this government is trying to treat them like f**king criminals.

“Yet they will not do anything about the NDIS rorting.”

Hughes stressed he has family members who benefit from the National Disability Insurance Scheme “which is great, but it will fall over because of the extraordinary rorting”.

“Everyone knows what’s going on,” he said.

“It’s insane how they’ve just let that go completely, there’s no oversight from the government, and they want to take more money off people who are honest and working hard.”

He similarly pointed to the explosion of crime linked to the $7 billion black market tobacco industry, which is on track to wipe out the legal trade by 2030.

“But guess what? There’s more tobacconists opening on every street corner,” Hughes said.

“How are they making a living? There’s no oversight, all that money leaves Australia in f**king shipping containers.

“No one in the government is doing their job.

“What are they doing? Seriously, it’s just ridiculous, people are properly sick of it. That budget has tipped Australia over the edge.”

Hughes said “no other developed nation” had inflation as high as Australia’s 4.2 per cent, driven by record government borrowing.

“They’ve royally f**ked this joint, people are bleeding and they are angry like I’ve never seen before,” he said.

It comes as a shock poll on Sunday night revealed One Nation soaring on voter backlash to the federal budget, with Pauline Hanson’s right-wing party overtaking Labor on primary vote share for the first time, 31 per cent to 28 per cent.

Hughes attributed the result to widespread discontent with government.

“It’s about everything, and the government’s not taking people seriously but also just thinking they’re better than the normal person, it’s f**king ridiculous,” he said.

“There’s no common sense anymore.

“Labor have just got to get out. It’s f**king crazy how they have mismanaged and let this money be stolen.

“Inflation is rising because of all the borrowing by state and federal governments putting us so far into debt. The country is $1 trillion in debt, Victoria is $200 billion in debt.

“Taxes in Victoria have gone through the f**king roof on so many levels.”

Hughes is particularly scathing in his appraisal of the Victorian government.

“It was like Covid gave them a chance to do whatever they f**king liked, they took it and ran with it and now we’re in a state of disarray,” he said.

“They took away any need for common sense, spending like drunken sailors.”

The comedian said the first time he ever voted Liberal was at the last state election due to former Premier Daniel Andrews’ “appalling” and “diabolical” behaviour during Covid.

“The last straw for me was the announcement of the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

“[I thought] these guys have gone berserk, drunk with power, I knew the state couldn’t afford it. No one else wanted the Commonwealth Games, but the Victorian government decided they were going to do it [to get votes] in the regions.

“Sure, if I was in Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong, I would have been excited too, getting a brand new stadium.

“Labor gets voted in a landslide, cancel the Commonwealth Games a few weeks later then blame Vladimir Putin and give $1 billion to the Commonwealth Games corporation in Scotland. Just threw away a billion.”

That came after Victoria “threw away” another billion with the controversial cancellation of the East-West Link road project in 2014.

“Then [Mr Andrews] turned it into the Big Build, funding every road known to man through borrowings, all massively over budget and just terribly managed,” Hughes said.

“There are reports private builders can’t get workers because the money paid on the Big Build is just so amazing that every worker goes there. That’s even before the rorts.

“The West Gate Tunnel is just absolutely a white elephant, no one ever goes through it. It was meant to cost $5 billion, ended up costing $10 billion. They they want to do another $40 billion [in Big Build projects].

“It’s crazy. Labor in Victoria they have just absolutely taken the piss for the whole time now.

“I thought federal was different, but [Mr Albanese] has come in hard, throwing money at Jacinta Allan just so she can get elected.”

Hughes claimed Australia was lurching towards authoritarian rule.

“Paul Keating thinks China has the best government in the world,” he said.

“We don’t want to be governed by despots or people who think they know better than us or give us no say.

“You can’t just fly around the country first class thinking they’re f**king winners when the country’s $1 trillion in debt.”

Dave Hughes will be appearing in Newcastle, Castlemaine, Alice Springs, Wangaratta, Dubbo, Cobar, Bribie Island, Redland, Goulburn, Blue Mountains, Albury Wodonga, Cowra, Launceston, Hobart and Wollongong. Tickets are available at davehughes.com.au