Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has demanded the Prime Minister call an election after he “betrayed” Australians with budget tax grabs. Labor's package proposes replacing the existing 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with an inflation-indexed scheme, introducing a minimum 30 per cent CGT rate. The bill, which is being examined by a parliamentary inquiry, will also restrict negative gearing to new builds for investors. Combined with planned trust reforms that are yet to be introduced, the measures are expected to generate more than $80 billion in additional revenue.
Mr Taylor called for an early election to “let the Australian people decide” whether they wanted to keep a government that has “broken faith”. He said the Labor government had “no mandate” to introduce the “toxic taxes” and that Mr Albanese knew Australians would not have voted for them. “To the Prime Minister, I say this to him: Call an election,” Mr Taylor said in Parliament on Tuesday. “Let the Australian people decide whether or not they want to see these tax increases. I know they don't. If you don't have the courage to call an election now, we will make the next election a referendum on these tax increases.”
Mr Chalmers dismissed the outcry against the major tax overhaul as “lies” and scare campaigns, as Labor polling and property market indicators slid on Monday. However, the Coalition has vowed to hold the Albanese government to account after the Prime Minister promised not to touch the CGT discount or negative gearing. Questioned on the government’s broken promise, Mr Albanese has insisted the government has “changed our position”.
Mr Taylor said Mr Albanese was an “oath breaker”. “Time and time again, this Prime Minister and this government have broken faith with Australians. Time and again, they have betrayed Australians,” the Opposition Leader said. “He promised Australians that they would be better off under his leadership. They're not. Under Labor, Australia has experienced the biggest collapse in living standards of any developed country in the world.”
Treasury analysis released last week said the 50 per cent CGT tax discount failed to adjust fairly for inflation and “effectively compensated investors”. The reforms also seek to reduce concessions that “disproportionately accrue to those earning the highest lifetime incomes by introducing minimum tax rates in the capital gains and trust taxation arrangements”. Despite the Treasurer defending the analysis as ultimately benefitting the “average worker”, the Opposition Leader insisted “millions of Australians” would not have given Labor a second term if they knew about the new tax measures.
“The Prime Minister didn't have the guts. He knew millions of Australians would have voted against higher taxes had he (taken the tax increases to the election),” Mr Taylor said. “He knew that millions of Australians would have given this government the boot if he had done so, so instead he misled Australians. Prior to the last election, this Prime Minister ruled out any changes to negative gearing and to capital gains tax in his own words, 50 times. And now this Prime Minister is imposing these toxic taxes on Australians against their will. I tell you what, it's arrogant.”
