Social services council joins calls to wind back property tax breaks

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Anthony Albanese has narrowed the scope of Labor’s intentions on tax reform during this term of government ahead of a key meeting. It comes as union and welfare groups call for the government to revisit changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.

Transcript

00:00Well, he's certainly watered down expectations of major tax reform, certainly during this

00:07term of the Albanese government.

00:10So viewers might remember that the government's planning and holding these so-called productivity

00:15roundtable talks in just under a fortnight's time.

00:18It's basically bringing business leaders, ministers, community groups together in the

00:25one room, economists as well, and essentially trying to nut out ways to boost productivity

00:30and turbocharge the economy.

00:33The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, yesterday indicated that he's open to all ideas and suggestions

00:38and doesn't want to necessarily rule out ideas ahead of that roundtable and before those discussions

00:45can occur.

00:46But the Prime Minister today seemed to be on a bit of a different page.

00:49So we've seen calls from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, as well as the Australian

00:54Council of Social Services, a peak welfare group, and they would like to see changes to

01:01a capital gains tax and negative gearing policy.

01:04So these have been politically contentious areas in the past.

01:08And the Prime Minister and Health Minister, Mark Butler, indicated that they aren't looking

01:13to change those ideas, irrespective of if they're just suggestions.

01:17We've made clear what our tax policies are.

01:20They're about cutting taxes for every single worker in Australia, no matter what their income.

01:26I know there will be a lot of ideas floated between now and the economic roundtable the

01:30week after next, but we're pretty clear on our tax plans.

01:33There will be a range of ideas floated.

01:38Governments make government policy and our tax policy, the only tax policy that we're implementing,

01:47is the one that we took to the election.

01:50So what tax policies is the PM talking about?

01:53So the income tax changes or the stage three policy tax cuts, they're due to come into effect

02:00next year.

02:01They're actually legislated ahead of the election.

02:03The other thing that the government wants to do, and they have a mandate to do, is change

02:08tax concessions for superannuation balances over $3 million.

02:13But I guess the politics of this more broadly is speaking with Labor sources as well as those

02:20in business groups and welfare groups who will be attending these talks, is that the parameters

02:25or their expectations of what exactly will be achieved at these talks have been sort of tempered,

02:32you'd have to say.

02:33Ultimately, we have seen the Treasurer as recently as June, he gave a big speech at the National

02:40Press Club, and I'll read you a part of his speech now.

02:43So he said that no sensible progress can be made on productivity, resilience or budget

02:49sustainability without proper consideration of more tax reform.

02:53And that is very different language to what we've heard from the Prime Minister in that

02:58grab before where he suggested that that's not the government's intention.

03:02They're not looking at bringing in any major new tax policies.

03:06That's not to say that we might not see further announcements down the line.

03:11But ultimately, we are seeing the opposition seizing upon this.

03:15And they're essentially pointing to a suggestion that there is tension between the Treasurer

03:21and Prime Minister.

03:22So we did hear from the Shadow Finance Minister, James Patterson, earlier today.

03:27And he's essentially accused, I guess, Mr Chalmers of speaking out of turn and the Prime Minister

03:34then having to rein him back in.

03:36So there's a bit of political argy-bargy here at play.

03:39And ultimately, those talks will happen in just under two weeks' time.

03:44I think that's an intuition, I think that if we understand it, we're going to do more.

03:45So here's how we can get the aim to do.

03:46And we don't remember, while we are talking about what the Prime Minister is saying.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended