A week after Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down his fifth Budget, the Albanese Government is now locked in daily game of “whack-a-mole” as it tries to fend off new revelations and rising anger about its tax changes and other controversial measures.

For the Albanese Government the latest spot fire is dealing with concerns from small businesses forced to restructure financial affairs due because of the increased taxation on trusts, while also being hit with expensive stamp duty bills.

“Paying stamp duty on top of being effectively forced into a higher tax structure would be a double whammy for small and medium businesses, when no whammy at all is justified,” the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry warned on Tuesday.

Responding to stamp duty concerns arising from the Budget, the Prime Minister told reporters in Perth: “We will work through with State governments on those issues. They are State taxes, not Commonwealth taxes”.

Earlier in the week Jim Chalmers blamed an “unhinged scare campaign” for driving the backlash to Labor’s proposed crackdown on negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts, but now he too is emphasising consultation is underway for some aspects.

Labor is considering changes to calculations for how start-ups are charged capital gains tax rather than a full exemption, after entrepreneurs warned axing the 50 per cent CGT discount would hit innovation and send the sector offshore.

“I’ve been doing some of that consultation myself and the Treasury Department has been doing some of that consultation as well,” Dr Chalmers said on Tuesday.

“It’s not unusual when you’re making important changes to the tax system, reforming the tax system, that there’d be some consultation on implementation and that’s what we’re engaged in.”

A burst of immediate post-Budget polling has so far given the Government some mixed results about how its string of broken promises are being received by Australians.

Monday’s Newspoll found last week’s Budget was ranked the worst since Paul Keating’s Labor budget in 1993, with most voters declaring the Albanese Government’s changes would leave them worse off.

At the same time, Newspoll found primary support for Labor unchanged, as the Coalition slipped further behind and One Nation continued to surge.

Despite Anthony Albanese remaining well ahead of Liberal leader Angus Taylor as preferred prime minister — 46 per cent support compared to 38 per cent — Labor insiders concede the personal brand damage from broken promises could soon hurt him badly.

“The polls and the general feedback from our constituents is quite good overall so far,” said one Labor operative, who also cautioned that the initial reaction to Kevin Rudd’s mining tax was positive, before it ended up helping destroy his government.

“We will need to keep fighting, and I think Jim Chalmers will be a lot better at this than his former boss Wayne Swan was at handling the debate and criticism”.

“The Government’s whole message was how it was making cuts, and it was taking hard decisions. But what they will get credit for is being courageous, doing something. That won’t happen this week but it’s the message that will work better than all the other.”

Others inside Government are not as optimistic, believing the gamble of breaking key promises well before the next election is due could still backfire.

“I think the damage to Albo’s credibility and integrity will be a real slow burn,” one veteran Labor figure predicts.

“I also think it puts to rest any suggestions that he might leave office next year — that would be an admission he got it wrong and stuffed up — which pathologically he will never do”.

Mr Taylor, who since taking the job as Opposition Leader in February has been grappling with One Nation’s rising popularity, has this week appeared rejuvenated as he finally has clear air to concentrate on holding the Government to account.

While the merits of the Coalition’s scare campaign over “death taxes” is contested, it appears to have already delivered the added benefit to Taylor of dragging squabbling Liberal and National MPs together to focus their energy against Labor.