00:00When Jim Chalmers really, I guess, hyped up, you know, it's probably a bit of a casual
00:07phrase, Ros, but I think that's what he was doing at the National Press Club when he talked
00:10about this productivity roundtable.
00:12He said, no sensible progress can be made on productivity, resilience or budget sustainability
00:17without proper consideration of more tax reform.
00:20And some of the organisations who are going to be at this roundtable have, you know, taken
00:23him up on that.
00:24Now, one of them is the Australian Council of Social Service.
00:27They've proposed winding back negative gearing altogether and halving the capital gains tax
00:32discount from 50% to 25%.
00:35They've said that they'd like to see the money that the government would then get back from
00:39making those changes to be put into social housing.
00:41Here's what ACOS CEO Cassandra Goldie had to say earlier today.
00:46We're bringing this in as a top priority into the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable
00:51because we do believe that there is a growing understanding that for all of us, we have
00:56to get on top of this housing crisis and we believe the tax settings are part of the
01:01damage that's being done.
01:02The Prime Minister has said this morning that the government took its tax plan to the election.
01:08They've said what they were going to do and, of course, that doesn't include changes
01:11to the capital gains discount.
01:12It doesn't include changes to the GST or to negative gearing.
01:16We heard something similar, actually, from Mark Butler this morning on News Breakfast.
01:20He said that the government had taken its tax plan to the federal election.
01:24Now, they've also said that they're not ruling anything in or out ahead of this roundtable,
01:28that it's still an open forum for ideas.
01:30But I think it's fair to say that there's a few mixed messages, for instance, that we're
01:35getting from the government at the moment.
01:36They're not all quite singing from the same songbook just yet.
01:40Is the government open to claim that Canadian gearing?
01:43Well, I'll be fair to you to previous answers.
01:45You know, I've said what our tax policy is.
01:49It's very clear what it is.
01:51It's very clear what it isn't as well.
01:54Is that likely to be shaped by the upcoming roundtable panel?
01:57People can put forward whatever idea they want.
02:01And what you'll see is five or six ideas coming forward a day.
02:05That's a good thing.
02:07That's a good thing.
02:07It's not government policy.
02:09Government policy is decided around a Cabinet table.
02:12Prime Minister Anthony Albanese there.
02:15And the Productivity Roundtable is going to be held here in Parliament House in a couple
02:20of weeks' time.
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