National, Labour, NZF, Greens, Act and Opportunity in the year’s first political debate.

SH1 southbound lanes are closed between Pioneer Rd and Great South Rd.

The Finance Minister will make a pre-Budget announcement tomorrow.

The federal government will need the Greens in their corner to pass the tax reform they bet the house on, but the minor party has criticised the changes.

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock said the first day of the inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity has heard that the budget will bake in tax benefits for baby boomers, leaving younger generations locked out.

"The evidence is strong. The gap between generations on housing is very wide. It is not getting narrower," she told reporters at Parliament House today.

READ MORE: Treasurer not surprised by negative polls after 'difficult' budget tax reform

"And the changes that we saw in the budget last week will make a very small difference to that very wide intergenerational gap."

Last week's federal budget proposed grandfathering negative gearing and decreasing the capital gains tax discount as a way to address intergenerational inequity. 

In doing so, Labor broke a key election promise that saw them slump in today's polls. 

"It would surprise me more if we got some sort of bounce in the polls from the difficult decisions we took in the budget," Treasurer Jim Chalmers conceded earlier today.

"We don't hand down budgets expecting to make some kind of big near-term positive difference to an opinion poll five days later, we make these decisions to make a big positive difference to the housing market over time, particularly for young Australians who have been locked up for too long."

Labor's changes will likely sail through the House of Representatives, where they hold the majority, but they will need either the Greens or the Coalition to pass the Senate.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has already vowed to fight the changes and, if elected, repeal them.

READ MORE: 'Loophole' will allow millions of homeowners to negatively gear after July 2027

The Greens have not yet stated whether they will support the federal government.

Pocock said the Greens will be "taking a very careful look" at the legislation when asked about the minor party's stance.

"We're yet to see the legislation on the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing," she said.

"They are a baby step in the right direction.

"Unfortunately, they preserve benefits for very wealthy property investors and there are a range of things that could've been done which would've limited the locking in of that benefit that's going mostly to baby boomers and really disadvantaging younger people."

The Greens may also use their position to leverage Labor's need for support to push through their own amendments.

The inquiry will hear from Australians across the country over the coming months. 

9news.com.au has contacted the Treasury Department for further comment.

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.

• Download the 9NEWS App here via Apple and Google Play
• Make 9News your preferred source on Google by ticking this box here
• Sign up to our breaking newsletter here

The woman is on trial, charged with careless driving causing Sam Rasmussen’s death.

Their exit follows viral allegations of aggression and unsafe conditions last year.

Ambulance officers applied three shocks to revive the rider on Auckland’s North Shore.

The once-ardent supporter of the president said an unstoppable coalition will rise up to stop him.

A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak is scheduled to arrive in the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Monday morning (local time).

The MV Hondius has spent the past six days sailing from the Canary Islands, where the remaining passengers were escorted off the vessel by personnel in full-body protective gear and boarded flights to more than 20 countries to enter quarantine.

The outbreak on the ship has reached 11 cases, nine of which have been confirmed.

READ MORE: Cake dust that put Gold Coast toddler into coma recalled nationwide

Three passengers have died, including a Dutch couple who health officials believe were the first exposed to the virus while visiting South America.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said one of the four Canadians in isolation after leaving the ship had tested positive on Sunday and it would share information on the case with the World Health Organisation.

The vessel has made the journey from Tenerife up the coast of Africa and Europe with 25 crew members and two medical personnel. According to the ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions, no one on board is experiencing any symptoms.

Crew members who are unable to return home will be quarantined in the Netherlands, the Dutch health ministry said last week. Some two dozen passengers and crew are already in quarantine in the Netherlands, after arriving in the country on a series of flights over the previous two weeks.

AS IT HAPPENED: Trump's alarming new post raises nuclear spectre

Eighteen Americans are currently under observation at specialised healthcare facilities in the United States designed to treat people with dangerous infectious diseases.

After everyone on board has disembarked, the ship will be decontaminated based on Dutch public health guidelines.

“Personal protective measures are being taken to ensure that the cleaners do not need to quarantine after the cleaning,” the health ministry said in a letter to the Dutch parliament last week.

Public health officials will inspect the vessel before it is allowed to sail again.

The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius is the first known case on a cruise ship.

The Dutch company that owns the cruise ship said it doesn’t foresee any changes to its operations.

READ MORE: Kiwi tourist fined after diving into Trevi Fountain in Rome

It has an Arctic cruise setting sail from Keflavik, Iceland, on May 29.

France’s Pasteur Institute said on Saturday it has fully sequenced the Andes virus detected in a French passenger from the MV Hondius cruise ship and found that it matched viruses already known in South America, with no evidence so far of new characteristics that would make it more transmissible or more dangerous.

Principal Nick Wilson died on Saturday evening after a sudden medical event.