Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth and shadow treasurer Tim Wilson have sparred in a tense on-air clash over the ongoing Senate inquiry into Labor’s new capital gains tax regime.
The government has insisted the two-day window of inquiry into the legislation is appropriate, given a separate Senate investigation into the operation of the existing CGT discount handed down its findings in March.
That report found the 50 per cent discount model had skewed home ownership towards investors and disproportionately benefited wealthier Australians.
On Tuesday, Ms Rishworth echoed this sentiment, telling Channel 9 that “anyone has had the opportunity to put in a submission” to the ongoing inquiry, which was not the first this year.
She justified the brief time frame by insisting the government had got the “fundamentals” of its legislation right.
But Mr Wilson labelled the two-day inquiry a “railroad effort”.
“We’ve got small businesses across this country bleeding,” he said.
“We have record small business insolvencies, and the response of the government is to bully and silence them and make sure they can’t have their say.
“You’ve got small businesses who are waking up … to provide coffee and to connect with people, and the only answer that Amanda has is to shut up and get back in your place.”
Ms Rishworth pointed to the Goldstein MP’s 2020 book The New Social Contract, in which he argued there was no “intergenerational justice” in the existing, “preferential” 50 per cent capital gains tax arrangement.
“Maybe you should table your book, because, of course, you’ve argued for these changes,” she said.
“Oh, grow up Amanda. That’s not true,” he shot back, before Ms Rishworth said: “You’re telling me to grow up?”
“Small businesses around the country are screaming for help, and you’re answer to this is to censor and silence them,” Mr Wilson said. Ms Rishworth responded by saying, “That is just not true”.
The proposed CGT changes will scrap the existing 50 per cent discount – introduced in 1999 – in favour of an inflation indexation model that will apply to all asset classes, including investment properties, shares, and businesses.
A 30 per cent minimum tax rate will also apply.
The government is aiming to pass the reforms with the support of the Greens in the next sitting fortnight, or by July 2, a year before they come into effect.
