Labor has warned the Coalition against holding up NDIS legislation, saying delays would cost the budget billions of dollars, as tensions boil over changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing.
Coalition warned against delaying NDIS bill
Labor has warned the Coalition not to delay NDIS legislation after Opposition Leader Angus Taylor suggested he could withhold support in order to fight capital gains tax changes. Modelling released by Labor claims that if the Coalition delays the legislation for a year, it would cost the budget $17 billion over a four-year period.
NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister told Sky News Sunday Agenda that the NDIS reform was necessary to make the scheme more sustainable. "The changes we propose do involve savings to the budget, and the consequences of delay are significant," Ms McAllister said on Sunday. "The Coalition talk a lot about the need to restrain costs, if they're serious about that, we hope that they'll engage with us and get this bill through."
Ms McAllister added: "I will say, to be fair to them, that they are engaging closely, constructively. My expectation is that we'll continue to have very constructive engagements."
Tax changes spark political standoff
It comes after the Coalition indicated it would not provide immediate support for Labor’s massive NDIS reform in response to the controversial tax changes in the budget. The Albanese government announced plans in the budget to scrap the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount, without having taken the policy to voters at an election.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese introduced the tax legislation to parliament and planned to push the laws through quickly. Mr Albanese bundled the tax reforms with the $250 Working Australians Tax Offset, forcing the Coalition to vote for tax changes it doesn’t support or oppose tax cuts.
Asked why the government would not split the bills into two packages, Ms McAllister did not say. "The Coalition needs to make a decision about how they approach questions of tax reform generally," she said.
Coalition accuses Labor of playing political games
Nationals leader Matt Canavan recently accused the Albanese government of deliberately playing political games with the legislative package. "We’re not playing these stupid games. We won’t be supporting increases in taxes on the Australian people," Senator Canavan said. "They played a trick on the Australian people last year, by lying to them at an election. Now they’re trying to play a trick on the Australian Parliament."
Mr Albanese had promised not to touch negative gearing or the capital gains tax before the election, then decided he had changed his mind after winning a supermajority.
The Coalition has confirmed it will not support the tax changes, which it argues will increase taxes on workers by $77 billion over the next decades. It has also said it was willing to support the $250 rebate if Labor separated it from the controversial tax reforms.
Details of the proposed tax changes
The bill introduced to parliament on Thursday will, from July 2027, replace the 50 per cent CGT discount with a less generous version of the pre-1999 tax model. The capital gains tax will be indexed to inflation over the life of the asset to ensure only above-inflation gains were taxed. Negative gearing changes will confine future negative gearing to new properties only.
