Labor in overdrive to rewrite CGT narrative amid ‘incorrect’ meme war
Updated ,first published
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and a team of ministers spent the morning trying to rewrite the narrative around changes to capital gains tax relief after a social media campaign by start-up founders against the changes went viral.
The campaign, which portrayed Albanese as owning 47 per cent of the founders’ businesses, was backed by the Coalition; Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson appeared in the media in the morning to accuse the government of “utter disdain for the Australian people”.
Speaking on a series of radio shows this morning, Albanese, cabinet secretary Andrew Charlton and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King claimed the social media campaign featuring AI-generated depictions of Albanese amounted to misinformation and that the government had failed to grasp the reality of the tax changes.
“The whole campaign that is going on is not based on the facts of what is actually going on. We will put the legislation before parliament in a few weeks so people can consider it,” Albanese told ABC radio on Wednesday morning.
“What we’re doing is taxing income from work more equally, which is how most people earn dollars predominantly from income from assets. Now that’s a fair reform.”
The social media videos reference the maximum 47 per cent tax rate that could be applied to the sale of a business through the government’s announced changes to capital gains tax relief.
Startup founder Frank Greeff, one of the main proponents of the social media campaign, admitted in an interview with the ABC that it favored caution over accuracy.
“Not all businesses will be taxed at 47 per cent, that’s true, but it’s said to be up to 47 per cent,” he told the ABC.
“It’s just like the reality of social media and attention is like, the more nuance you have, the faster someone will pass by and not really care about what you’re saying.”
Charlton called the memes “factually incorrect” and argued Australians would be vastly better off with the government’s proposed changes.
“Under the new regime, we are trying to change the regime to tax real earnings rather than nominal earnings. And those real earnings will always be smaller, and often significantly smaller, than nominal earnings,” Charlton told ABC Radio National.
“So, contrary to what these claims and memes suggest, no one is paying the full marginal tax rate on a nominal gain or shifting it to a real gain. And what this means in practice is that in some cases, in some asset classes, people will actually be better off and pay less tax under the new regime.”
Those comments were echoed by King, who said a consultation period would allow startups to express their concerns. In a separate speech, Deputy Minister of Customs Julian Hill said that a regulation for start-ups is possible in the capital gains tax legislation.
Asked about the open letter from young business leaders lobbying the government to rethink capital gains reforms on shares, Charlton said: “All the figures actually show that the proportion of Australians investing in shares has declined over the last 20 years, and that’s because the old regime was less generous to shares than it was to housing.”
Australians’ dividend income has fallen since 2001, according to the latest budget documents.
Speaking to reporters at Parliament House in Canberra, Wilson said: “This government will find any excuse or excuse as to why they are going to crush small businesses in this country. They are particularly focused on how they are going to punish young Australians and bring them to their knees to gain wealth and get ahead.”
Nick Newling is the federal politics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
