'It's who we are': Albanese issues impassioned defence of multiculturalism

Anthony Albanese has defended both multiculturalism and his government's housing policy. (ABC News)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended changes to capital gains tax that were part of the budget, while also spruiking multiculturalism during a wide-ranging interview on 7.30.

The prime minister was speaking after a weekend when auction clearance rates were their lowest since April 2020 in Sydney and lowest since during 2021's COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne.

"Everyone has acknowledged during this debate that the housing system is broken," Mr Albanese said.

That change has caused some consternation among investors and home-owners concerned their property values could decrease.

The CBA has forecast house prices to be flat throughout 2026, while NAB has predicted a drop of 2 per cent across major capital cities.

Mr Albanese rebuffed those suggestions though, citing Treasury estimates from before the changes.

"The Treasury estimates are that house prices will continue to increase, but they'll increase by a lesser amount than they would have otherwise with these changes," he said.

Asked if he was concerned about people losing value on their homes, the prime minister said he thought the auction results were encouraging for homebuyers.

Auction clearance rates dropped in the past week. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

"What is important is that last Saturday when people went to buy their own home, if it was an existing property, they weren't competing against investors who knew that if they could bid an extra $20,000 or $50,000," he said.

"People can still negatively gear new builds of course, and that's about boosting supply.

"We know there's been a 400 per cent increase in house prices since 1999, more than double the increase in wages. And that's why we couldn't continue to sit back and not pursue this reform."

Challenged that this was him effectively saying that "home-owners should just be prepared to take a hit", the PM denied the charge.

Jim Chalmers has come under fire in some areas because of the CGT changes. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

"We've seen home ownership rates drop for younger Australians," he said.

"I don't want to live in a society that's defined by intergenerational inequity, by people from my generation having access to buying their own home and having the security that comes from a roof over your head, to people who are the younger generations simply giving up on buying their own home."

With the cost of living a concern for many Australians, there has been a shift for voters from the major parties to One Nation.

Pauline Hanson's party