Zoe McKenzie
Flinders · Liberal Party · Australia
“Wet lettuce. That is the official verdict on this government's attempt to prevent harm to Australian kids via social media regulation. 'Wet lettuce' were the exact words the eSafety Commissioner used to describe the reforms a month ago in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.”
“Schedule 1 contains a large number of technical amendments across Commonwealth legislation, while schedule 2 repeals more than 100 obsolete amending acts that no longer have any operative effect.”
“They include amendments affecting the Criminal Code, veterans legislation, radio communications, the Midwife Professional Indemnity Scheme, marine safety legislation, family law, freedom of information and electoral legislation.”
“Too often we have seen legislation introduced in haste, legislation requiring significant correction after introduction or legislation producing unintended consequences because proper scrutiny was lacking. Australians expect better.”
“I rise to speak on the Statute Update Bill 2026. The coalition recognises the important role that the statute update legislation plays in maintaining the quality and integrity of the Commonwealth Statute Book. These bills have long been a feature of good legislative practice.”
“It strengthens parliamentary scrutiny, it improves transparency and it provides confidence that the legislation described as technical does not, inadvertently or otherwise, produce substantive legal change. Good lawmaking is not just about good drafting; it is about careful scrutiny.”
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“This bill expands the commission's capacity to dismiss applications that are, in their view, frivolous, vexatious or lacking reasonable prospects of success and empowers the commission to make orders restricting vexatious litigants from filing further applications without permission. Certain matters will now be able to be determined on the papers by consent, without the need for hearings or conferences. In my consultation since taking on the role as shadow assistant minister for industrial relations, I have met widely with stakeholders across the spectrum of IR interests, from the president of the commission to daily practitioners before the commission.”
“Earlier this year, Justice Adam Hatcher, president of the commission, announced that, by the end of the financial year, the commission's total workload will have increased by over 70 per cent in the space of three years and that this is principally being caused by the increasing use of AI tools by potential litigants. In testimony before senate estimates recently, representatives of the commission advised that early indications are that around 40 per cent to 50 per cent of people were telling them that AI had been used to make an application to the commission.”
“I rise to speak on the government's Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. The bill amends the now tome-like Fair Work Act 2009, the Independent Contractors Act 2006 and the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009. Schedule 1 parts 5 to 8 seek to make it easier for the Fair Work Commission to determine or dismiss applications to the commission. The president of the commission, as well as near any practitioner in this area, will tell you that the commission has been inundated with applications composed by generative AI, like ChatGPT or Claude.”
“This is exactly what the Australia-European Union partnership seeks to strengthen. Deterrence works best when potential adversaries understand that democratic nations are coordinated, capable and united. Australia's prosperity and security depend upon a stable international environment and strong partnerships with like-minded nations. This agreement is another step in that direction, and I support stronger cooperation with our European partners and the accompanying efforts to combat terrorism, foreign interference and online radicalisation. In a world becoming more contested, more competitive and more dangerous, Australia cannot stand alone.”
“The challenge is ensuring that those businesses can access markets, investment and partnerships that allow them to continue to grow. This agreement can help achieve exactly that. But, to do so, our capability must match the aspirations in this document. In a few weeks, I will have the opportunity to participate in the ADF's Exercise Pitch Black in the Northern Territory. Pitch Black is the Royal Australian Air Force's premier international air combat exercise. This year, it will bring together more than 100 aircraft and personnel from 19 allied and partner nations to train in complex, realistic scenarios. But what makes Pitch Black so important is not simply the aircraft involved but the relationships built, including with our NATO allies, who typically participate in this biannual event in Darwin.”
“This partnership establishes cooperation across a broad range of areas, including cybersecurity, maritime security, defence-industry collaboration, counterterrorism, space and emerging technologies. These are the front lines of modern conflict. Today's strategic competition is not fought solely by armies; it is fought through critical minerals, satellite networks, artificial intelligence, supply chains, cybersystems and economic coercion. One of the most encouraging aspects of this partnership is the opportunity it creates for Australian businesses developing cutting-edge defence technologies and sovereign capability. Australian innovators are already producing world-class solutions in advanced manufacturing, autonomous systems, cybersecurity and aerospace technology.”
“In such an enduring and destabilised environment, Australia needs like-minded friends—reliable, constant, predictable, like-minded friends. In February, I was able to visit Australia's mission to the European Union, and I spent time with Australia's ambassador to the EU, Belgium, Luxembourg and NATO, His Excellency General Angus Campbell, AO, DSC, and his deputy head of mission, David Brightling. It's hard to imagine better mentors in the matters of EU-Australia strategic and trade partnership, and I take this opportunity to thank Angus and David and their teams for the impact that they are having in building an already strong relationship into one which is even deeper and enhances our shared commitment to the rules based international order.”
“While more could and should have been achieved for red meat, the deal will prove beneficial for our fruit and vegetable exporters, as well as those who produce our high-quality seafood, nuts, wine, critical minerals and advanced manufacturing goods. Horizon Europe will shepherd collaboration between Australia's top researchers and those from Europe across new technologies, advanced computing, clean energy, health, and critical minerals, bringing our research institutions and shared curiosity closer together. The security and defence partnership with Europe is timely. The world is becoming a more dangerous and less predictable place. Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine continues; it is now into its fifth year. Conflict rages in the Middle East and its social and economic effects spill over into our supply chains and domestic politics.”
“Without trying to do the government's publicity, it does need to be said that the Australian and European relationship has reached a high-water mark in recent years, with Australia having concluded the free trade agreement and the security and defence partnership, with our participation in Horizon Europe and with the strategic partnership on sustainable critical minerals value chains signed back in 2024. Our relationship with Europe as a trade, investment and strategic partner is essential. As a bloc, the EU is our third-largest trading partner and second-largest source of foreign investment. The free trade agreement provides a starting point in terms of building a bigger market with Europe's 450 million consumers.”
“I rise to support the principles which underpin this motion by the member for Sturt in regard to the Australia-European Union Security and Defence Partnership. Together with the member for Sturt, I serve on the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, which will explore our relationship with Europe through our examination of the Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement. Since being elected to this place, I have co-chaired the Parliamentary Friends of the European Parliament. I have lived, worked and studied in the EU. I speak three of the union's languages—or four, I suppose, given that English still counts as one.”
“With Fair Work claims up 40 per cent and AI making lodgement cheaper for claimants—but defence is not cheaper for small employers—the budget's response was $1.3 million for a help desk. Can the minister name one structural reform to reduce that burden? The government's procurement legislation would allow the Commonwealth to preference employers. Most small businesses operate under awards. Can the minister explain why a small-business owner who can't afford to negotiate an enterprise agreement should be locked out of government contracts? The government's criminal wage theft laws took effect in January. Small-business owners who make a payroll error— (Time expir ed)”
“The Suburban Rail Loop, which Senate estimates has revealed already had 16 instances of alleged wrongdoing that the government was aware of, has received another $3.8 billion from this government in this budget. Given that the government continues to reward bad behaviour, it's no surprise that the tactics that triggered the CFMEU's administration in the first place haven't stopped. At Snowy Hydro 2.0, a project that's gone from $2 billion to a potential $42 billion, officials lodged over 500 worksite entry requests in a single year, including 84 in one day. This is not accountability. I have some questions for the minister about her budget, should she deign to join us today.”
“They do not have the workforce size, the army of HR advisers or the legal resources to negotiate and administer an enterprise agreement. Legislating to preference their larger, better resourced competitors in government procurement purely on the basis of industrial relations structure is not productivity policy. It is using the Commonwealth's purchasing power to tilt the playing field against small business and to force them into multi-employer agreements, as they have already done in early childhood. I also want to address the CFMEU. Geoffrey Watson SC, the union's own court-appointed corruption investigator, has estimated that criminal infiltration of Victoria's Big Build cost taxpayers $15 billion. The Allen government disputes that figure, but is there any figure that would or could be acceptable to taxpayers?”
“But the cumulative impact of these changes landing all at once on 1 July on small-business payrolls is substantial, and the government has provided almost no transition support or simplification measures to help small employers absorb them. Is it any wonder that last year 370,000 small businesses exited the market? This morning, we've also found out that the government is also pursuing legislation that would allow the Commonwealth to preference employers covered by an enterprise agreement when awarding government contracts. On the face of it, this might appear to be inoffensive. In practice, it is deeply concerning for all small businesses. The overwhelming majority of small businesses in this country operate under modern awards, not enterprise agreements.”
“It allocated $1.3 million to give small businesses specialised support to navigate the commission. Rather than fix the complexity, they're just helping small help desks to manage it. And the pressure doesn't stop there. Yesterday, the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual wage review decision—a 4.75 per cent increase to modern award minimum wages, effective on 1 July. That's on top of payday super, on top of the right to disconnect and on top of a minimum wage that was already lifted by 3.5 per cent last year. Now, I want to be clear: no-one on this side of the chamber opposes workers being paid fairly.”
“We have the Fair Work Act, over 100 modern awards, enterprise agreements, the National Employment Standards, the right-to-disconnect obligations that now apply to small business and, from 1 July this year, payday superannuation requiring employers to pay super with every single wage payment, not quarterly as they have done in the past. Every one of those changes, taken alone, might sound reasonable, but, taken together, they represent an almost impossible compliance burden on, for example, a cafe owner in Frankston or a tradie on the peninsula or a family running a small construction firm. The Fair Work Commission itself told us in February that lodgements of workplace claims have increased by 40 per cent over the previous three-year average. And what did the government do in the budget?”
“I want to use my time today to speak up for the people who rarely get a seat at the table when we're talking about employment and industrial relations policy, and that is Australia's small-business owners. Before entering this place I ran a small business, I sat on the board of the committee for Mornington Peninsula, and I worked as an industrial relations lawyer. I know what it's like to try and do the right thing by your people and to feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of workplace law that you're expected to master just to keep the doors open. The employment and industrial relations framework that governs small business in this country has become extraordinarily complex.”
“For Toni, this isn't about fairness. It's about whether her husband gets treatment. For Flinders, this policy is not just unfair; it smashes my most vulnerable residents. When you make private health insurance less affordable, you don't save money; you simply move the cost somewhere else. This government did not cut the private health rebate for over-65s because it had to. It did it because it thought it could. It looked at a group of people who have already paid their dues, who are too old to change their circumstances and who are too polite to make too much of a fuss, and it made its calculations.”
“He writes: We never expected to be disadvantaged by our own government in our later years. Glynis from Safety Beach has paid into the system since she was a teenager, with 50-odd years of premiums and barely a claim. She says she simply won't be able to afford the increase. This is the intergenerational fairness that this government is delivering. Anne from Mornington had a knee replacement last year and she couldn't have afforded it without her cover. I've heard the language coming from the other side in their typical Orwellian tongue-twisting way. It's about 'intergenerational fairness' and 'sharing the burden'. It almost sounds sane until you meet the people on the receiving end. In Summerville, Toni's husband is midway through chemotherapy for liver cancer. She's paid her premiums every year without fail.”
“Consistent with the values of that generation, they are self-reliant, responsible, loath to be a burden on others, careful planners and great embodiments of one of the most admirable human qualities, which defined the work ethic of this nation: deferred gratification. More than 33,500 local seniors hold private health insurance in my electorate, the third highest take-up in the country. Our people are not wealthy tycoons looking for a tax break. They are retirees. They are veterans. They are grandparents and they are lifelong taxpayers who have spent decades paying their way. Now, many are telling me that they simply cannot afford Labor's latest hit on their wallet. Kevin from Mornington, and his wife, have held private health insurance for 58 years.”
“If you wanted to design a policy that puts more pressure on hospitals, increases the cost of living for retirees and slams Australians for taking responsibility for their own health care, you would struggle to come up with a more punishing policy than Labor's private health insurance rebate changes for Australians over 65. The changes will make life harder for up to 1.4 million Australians aged over 65, who will be forced to pay up to $640 more every single year just to keep the private health cover that they currently have. Nowhere will the impact be felt more than in Flinders. The Mornington Peninsula is one of the oldest electorates in Australia. Nearly one in three residents is aged 65 or over.”
“The people of Flinders understand a simple truth: you cannot tax your way to prosperity. You cannot build economic growth by discouraging investment. This budget asks Australians to believe otherwise, but the people of Flinders know that government should stand behind Australians who work hard and plan ahead, not treat them as a convenient source of additional revenue. And for those reasons, I oppose these measures. I oppose Labor's capital gains tax increases. I oppose Labor's attack on older Australians' private health insurance. And I support the coalition's alternative: lower taxes, stronger incentives to invest, genuine cost-of-living relief and a fair go for Aussies trying to get ahead.”
“For a typical worker, that means tax cuts of around $250 in the first year, $500 in the second year, $750 in the third year and around $1,000 in the fourth year. That is genuine tax reform, and, unlike Labor's approach, it doesn't require punishing investors, retirees, small businesses and future generations. Ultimately, this budget reveals something deeper about Labor's philosophy. Labor sees investment as a revenue source. The coalition sees investment as the engine of economic growth. Labor sees aspiration as something to tax. The coalition sees aspiration as something to encourage. And nowhere is the contrast more obvious than in Flinders, an electorate built by small-business owners, tradies and retirees who have saved and planned. It was built by Australians who believe that hard work should be rewarded, not punished.”
“We have moved amendments to remove Labor's capital gains tax and negative gearing changes entirely while allowing tax relief measures to proceed. In other words, Australians can and should have the tax cuts without the tax hikes. Labor simply refuses to allow it. The coalition has also proposed a better long-term solution: a tax-back guarantee, a simple principle that says that Australians should not pay higher taxes simply because inflation pushes them into higher tax brackets. Under our proposal, income tax thresholds would be indexed to inflation. Bracket creep would no longer silently increase tax burdens year after year, and Australians would receive automatic tax relief at the cost of living rises.”
“They are Australians who have worked, saved, paid taxes and planned responsibly—people who have done exactly what governments have encouraged them to do for decades. What makes this budget particularly frustrating is that these measures are entirely unnecessary. Australians were promised no new taxes. The coalition has made its position very clear. We support tax relief for working Australians, we support the working Australians tax offset and we support genuine cost-of-living relief. But we do not support Labor's tax hikes on capital gains, negative gearing, housing trusts and small businesses. We do not support the abolition of the additional rebate offered to seniors over 65 who have taken out private health insurance.”
“That is a lot to pay out of our pension, but we cannot afford to be without it, as our health is not the best. We will have to wait and see what our premiums will be, and then decide if we have to go back on the public system. There are 1.4 million Australians right now having exactly this conversation. Private health insurance has supported more than 41,000 hospitalisations for older Australians in Flinders. Every one of those hospitalisations treated through the private system is one fewer patient taking up a space in the public system. Yet Labor's response is to make private health insurance more expensive and to increase pressure on public hospitals that are already struggling—like the Rosebud Hospital, which state Labor has ignored for years. The people affected are not wealthy elites.”
“Labor has decided to abolish the additional private health insurance rebate available to older Australians. Again, in my electorate of Flinders nearly one in three residents are aged over 65. That's almost double the national average. There are more than 33,500 private health insurance holders aged over 65 in my electorate; that's the third-highest figure of any electorate. Some will pay up to $640 more every year just to maintain the cover they already have. My constituents are in shock. Their private health insurance gives them a sense of safety as well as comfort. They will have choice and not be a burden on the state. A few minutes ago, Jan Heraty wrote on my Facebook feed: We have had private health insurance since we arrived in Australia in 1968. Our monthly premiums are now $235.01 each.”
“I like to sell some shares each year to help with life's unexpected expenses, and so long as the sale value is less than twice the minimum taxable amount, I don't have to pay any tax. I have several work colleagues with much larger parcels of shares that were part of their salary packages, and like me they expected to be able to supplement their self funded pensions tax free for many years to come. All of a sudden those plans will cost 30% off the sale. As well as the cruel and petty removal of the private health discount for over 65's, the blanket 30% CGT tax on low income retiree share trades, is a double whack at our cost of living. Within this budget there is another measure that will hit Flinders harder than almost any electorate in Australia.”
“David told me what he has seen amongst our small-business community in Somerville—that our small business owners in Somie routinely work 60 to 80 hours a week with no overtime, no penalty rates, sometimes no holidays, no long-service leave and none of the protections that many employees take for granted. He said that many owners mortgage their own homes, take significant commercial risks and, of course, create jobs for others. David asked a simple question: Where is the reward after many years of hard work if it is going to be taxed at the same level as wages income? Another constituent, Leo from Mornington, told me: Let me add my concern also as a self funded retiree … who have a small parcel of shares purchased under an employee share scheme when I was still working.”
“Labor's changes mean many of those Australians could pay twice as much tax when they eventually sell their businesses that they have worked their entire lives to create. This isn't fairness. It is a penalty for success, and it sends a very dangerous message: work hard, save hard, invest wisely, build something of value, and Labor will now snatch a bigger slice when you're done. The economic consequences extend far beyond individual taxpayers. I recently spent some time with David Livingstone watching the Somerville Eagles play at their run-down pavilion. David is the chairperson of the Somerville Business Group, but he is also a former CPA who has spent more than 30 years helping local businesses navigate Australia's ever more complex tax system.”
“Under Labor's changes, when those properties are eventually sold, families will face dramatically larger tax bills than they were expecting, not because they suddenly became cashed up overnight but because Labor has decided that decades of saving and sacrifice deserve to be taxed more heavily. Then there are our tradies and our small businesses. Flinders has significantly more tradespeople and owner-operators than any other Victorian electorate. Nearly 18 per cent of workers in Flinders are technicians and trades workers, compared with just 12.6 per cent across Victoria. My people are plumbers, electricians and builders. They get up before sunrise, they work hard through the week and, often on the weekends, they work on their own homes, renovations or extensions.”
“At this stage, their succession plans and their retirement plans are real, and my constituents are counting on them. This budget throws all that planning and sacrifice into the wind. Flinders also has a lower occupancy of premises. At the last census, 30 per cent of our dwellings were recorded as unoccupied—nearly three times the Victorian average. Many of these are holiday homes and have been held by families for generations. Many will have accumulated substantial capital gains over time. Some will even have been acquired before Labor's introduction of CGT in 1985.”
“The discount of 50 per cent was introduced by John Howard and Peter Costello in 1999. Today, Labor wants to fundamentally change that. The consequences for my electorate will be particularly severe. According to data and analysis by the ATO, Treasury and the ABS, Flinders ranks 12th out of all 150 electorates for the value of the capital gains tax discount currently received by residents. The average CGT discount benefit per taxpayer in Flinders is $3,148. Collectively, residents of my electorate receive almost $305 million in CGT discount benefits every year. Flinders is also an older electorate, with a median age of 48 years compared with 38 years across Victoria—a full decade's difference—meaning my constituents are closer to the age at which they will retire and hand their businesses over to the next generation of owners.”
“This budget hits Flinders harder than most electorates in Australia because of who we are. We are small-business owners. We are tradies. We are self-funded retirees. We are among the millions of Australians who have spent decades working, saving and planning for their future and who are determined not to be a burden on the public purse. This budget punishes all of them. Let's start with Labor's changes to capital gains tax. Labor can call it reform, but Australians know it for exactly what it is: an impost on aspiration. It is a tax impost that will hit hard in my electorate. Australians who hold an asset for more than 12 months currently receive a 50 per cent capital gains tax discount—a change to the original version of the CGT of Paul Keating, the Treasurer's idol.”
“But, behind the smooth-talking treasurer, the truth was there for all Australians to see and, now, feel: when Labor runs out of money, they come after yours. And come after yours, by golly, they are—$77 billion worth of pursuit from your hard work and, most egregiously, from the pockets of the people of the Mornington Peninsula who I represent here. The Mornington Peninsula is made up of a lot of people just like my mum. They work their backsides off. They might build a business. We've got more than 16,000 small businesses in Flinders. They save for their retirement. They might invest in a single investment property, and, by golly, they take responsibility for their own health care. Their reward from this Labor 'true believer' budget is more tax, a whole lot more tax—$77 billion more worth of tax.”
“So on budget night this year I sat here and remembered 1983 and what it might mean for the thousands—indeed the hundreds of thousands, if not millions—of Australians who were learning what this budget was going to do to their hope, their aspiration, their passion, their planning, their sacrifice, their deferred gratification, their pride and their sense of purpose. In handing down his budget on 12 May, the Treasurer engaged in his usual barrage of 'Liberal light' language: responsible economic management, aspiration and opportunity. He's always talking about a resilient economy. It doesn't feel very resilient today. Even today, in question time, my colleagues will remember that he actually said that private sector investment in our economy is booming. He actually said that.”
“At the time, the Labor government thought about making that new capital gains tax retrospective, but when it was finally implemented, after much public outcry, it was on a prospective basis. That change was sufficiently hard-hitting to smash Mum's weekend passion and her second job running a small nursery in the Dandenong Hills, where she would spend all weekend, her hands in the dirt, growing daffodils in the luscious red ground and huge orchids in a nearby glasshouse. She would cuddle the flowers on Sundays and sell them to flower shops on Mondays before she started her hospital rounds visiting all her patients. But CGT crushed Mum's second job and the dream that gave her so much joy, because, for Mum, plants and flowers, soil and growth made up for the patients with lung cancer she couldn't always save.”
“And when, as a surly teenager a few years later, I complained about my indecision about what to do in life, I said, 'But Mum, what job can you really say has objective worth, purpose beyond the self, and leaves a lasting benefit for others?' Mum quietly replied, 'I save lives'—Mum, one; Zoe, zero. But that 1983 election night taught me all I needed to know about the relationship between hard work, sacrifice, deferred gratification—and taxation. At that time, Mum was paying the top marginal tax rate of 60c in the dollar. To be fair, Prime Minister Keating went on to drop that rate to 49c in 1985. But, in what you might now recognise as a Peter-for-Paul move, he introduced the capital gains tax at the same time.”
“She looked at me nervously and said, 'Yeah, I'm okay, but this will make it harder for me to send you to school.' I panicked a bit. You see, my school wasn't just a good school; it was my second parent. It was the place that didn't forget to pick me up, the place that always turned up to the school fair and made it to all the sporting carnivals. I would have loved it if mum could have been at the fair, if Mum could have come to the sporting carnival. I would have loved it if she'd been able to remember to pick me up, like, just once—ever. But Mum was usually somewhere else, working her guts out—not to be rich but to be purposeful and to make sure she could keep sending me to a good school. Mum had purpose and Mum had grit.”
“It was early March 1983 that I remember having my very first political reflection. I was sitting on the floor at home, half listening to the chatter on the television as my mum intently watched the 1983 election results rolling in. I was 10 and in grade 6, much like the kids up there with the Parliamentary Education Office watching us today. That night, Bob Hawke was elected Prime Minister. My mum loved Hawkie. A lifetime Liberal voter, she loved his larrikin style, his call-it-as-he-thinks bluntness, his carousing, his former drinking, his brilliance and his wit. She'd read Blanche's book about him the year before. So I couldn't really understand why Mum looked so worried that night, and I asked if she was okay.”
“This is socialism—keep spending so our standard of living will get worse. Another set of Labor— Oh, I can't use that word— Don't be naive. Labor has locked in inter generational inequality by pulling the ladder up on the younger generations trying to get ahead and kept all the advantages for older generations. If you believe in these policies will all Labor politicians volunteer to sacrifice their negative gearing or pay capital gains on their investment portfolios? Labor— word that cannot speak its name in this place— x four. Please explain to me how 15,400 of the places under the Australian Labor Party 5% deposit Home Guarantee Scheme went to non Australian residents? How is that helping young Australians? Well, it's a fair question. Anyway, Australia, go have a look now before the social media manager blasts the lot at 10 pm.”
“There's a fun game that we like to play late at night on this side of the chamber, which is called 'spot the ever-deleting comments feed on Labor backbench socials'. The backbench has been instructed this week by the Treasurer to go out and spruik the budget and to direct their taxpayer funded communication allowances to selling Labor's toxic taxes. If you have time, I strongly recommend that you cast an eye over the commentary on so many of these posts, often in response to what appears to be a routine resembling a dancing girl warm-up or perhaps a game show host. Pick any backbencher—Bonner, Sturt, Barton. Here are a few comments from this morning: Taxing you to prosperity! Moronic! Another propagator sales job from the government—you've increased taxes … for everyone! It's not helping young people.”
“Labor and their friends on the crossbench like to talk about fairness and intergenerational inequity, but, when they call for the CGT discount to be wound back, they're actually calling for higher taxes on thousands of people on the Mornington Peninsula—hardworking, independent minded people who now wonder what value we, as Australians, put on a life of sacrifice.”
“New Zealand is after all only a short plane ride away, and we'd have visas instantly, and could have our tax residency changed pretty quickly. It makes sense for us to just pay off our mortgage, and then move there before accumulating large gains that the ATO will tax to oblivion. I run a business remotely, and so could work from anywhere. So frankly, leaving Australia would be very easy. I know many Australians are feeling similarly, especially entrepreneurs who fear a massive CGT bill when they sell. With a more mobile and globalised business world, it's easier than ever for us to lose our capital and, importantly, our talent to other countries.”
“Like many Australians, we used a family trust structure for flexibility and long-term planning. We always understood that we would pay tax on gains when assets were eventually sold, but that those gains would flow through and be taxed at our marginal rates. Under the proposed minimum 30% CGT and trust changes, that entire plan effectively stops making sense. It feels incredibly discouraging for younger Australians who followed the advice we were always given: work hard, save consistently, invest responsibly and try to become self-sufficient. The emotional impact of these changes has honestly been significant. It feels like the rules are being rewritten midway through the game, and that younger Australians are being locked out of the same opportunities previous generations had to build long-term financial security.”
“It's not just the older generations who've been hit by Labor's war on aspiration and wealth. When governments make it harder to build up savings and value, easier to tax success and less attractive to invest, they send a message to the next generation: your ambition is my revenue source. Last week I received a letter from a couple at the other end of their aspiration journey. It reads: My wife and I are in our early 30s and live in Somers. We are exactly the kind of people who thought we were doing the right thing financially. Instead of buying multiple investment properties, we spent years saving carefully and investing into ETFs and shares. Our goal was simple: to slowly build enough wealth over decades to eventually fund our own retirement and reduce reliance on the pension system.”
“That's because we are a community of tradies, farmers, small-business owners and retirees who have spent years building something from scratch and paying all our taxes. According to analysis from the ATO and the Treasury, more than $300 million in capital gains tax discounts are claimed by Flinders residents. That's the 12th highest rate anywhere in the country. And it's not because we're a community of millionaires but because we're a community of investors, business owners and retirees. On average, in my electorate, we are both poorer and older than the average Victorian, but we are also spectacularly self-reliant. When people retire, they downsize. They pass the business they've spent 30 years building onto the next owner. And that's exactly, now, when Labor will pounce.”
“He said to me, 'If this budget's changes were made back then, all those 4 am mornings of baking cakes and biscuits would have been for nothing.' This is one of the many stories I have heard around my electorate. It's not just one family but generations of families who have built up a small business from scratch. And there are others who may have invested and developed property or managed to keep a family holiday home across generations despite ever increasing tax grabs from state Labor. Now there's this ultimate slap in the face: when you sell, Labor will not just be taking a slice of the pie; it'll be taking up to half. Flinders will be one of the hardest hit electorates in the country.”
“The biggest tax hike in this year's budget isn't on billionaires. It's on ordinary Australians who have spent decades building assets and planning for their retirement so as not to be a burden on the state. For my constituents in Flinders, it's not that the Albanese government's budget misses the mark. It puts a target on the back of every single person who has worked hard, saved hard and planned for the future. And nowhere is that clearer than Labor's changes to capital gains tax. A few weeks ago I sat at a community lunch next to a bloke who, together with his wife, had run first one, then two and then tens of cake shops across Melbourne before he retired and passed on the business to others.”
“My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm that Labor's toxic tax bills grant him extraordinary powers to slash the $250 tax offset to zero whenever he likes, without taking it back to the parliament?”