Updated ,first published
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and a team of ministers have spent the morning trying to rewrite the narrative over changes to the capital gains tax discount, after a social media campaign against the changes by startup founders has gone viral.
The campaign depicting Albanese as a 47 per cent owner in founders’ businesses has been bolstered by the Coalition, with shadow treasurer Tim Wilson using morning media appearances to accuse the government of showing “utter contempt for the Australian people”.
Speaking during a slew of radio appearances this morning, Albanese, cabinet secretary Andrew Charlton and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King claimed the social media campaign – featuring AI-generated depictions of Albanese – were tantamount to misinformation and failed to grasp the reality of the government’s tax changes.
“A whole range of the campaigns that have been run aren’t based upon facts of what is actually occurring. We will have the legislation in the parliament in a couple of weeks’ time, people will be able to assess that,” Albanese told ABC radio on Wednesday morning.
“What we are doing is taxing more equally the income earned from working, which is how most people overwhelmingly earn their dollars with income earned from assets. Now that is a reform that is fair.”
The social media videos reference the 47 per cent maximum tax rate that could be applied for the sale of a business through the government’s announced changes to the capital gains tax discount.
In an interview with the ABC, one of the main proponents of the social media campaign, startup founder Frank Greeff, admitted that it favoured attention over accuracy.
“Not all businesses are going to be taxed at 47 per cent, that’s correct, but it said up to 47 per cent,” he told the ABC.
“That’s just kind of like the truth of social media and attention is like, unfortunately, the more nuance you have, the quicker someone will scroll past and not really care about what you’re saying.”
Charlton described the memes as “factually incorrect”, and argued that Australians would largely be better off under the government’s proposed changes.
“Under the new regime, we are moving to shift the regime such that it taxes real gains instead of nominal gains. And those real gains will always be smaller than the nominal gains and often substantially smaller,” Charlton told ABC Radio National.
“So unlike what those claims and memes suggest, nobody is paying their full marginal tax rate on a nominal gain or shifting it to a real gain. And what that means in practice is that in some cases, on some asset classes, people will actually be better off under the new regime and be paying less tax.”
The comments were echoed by King, who said a consultation period would allow startups to express their concern. Assistant Customs Minister Julian Hill, in a separate appearance, said a carve-out for startups in the capital gains tax legislation was a possibility.
Asked about an open letter from young business leaders lobbying the government to rethink capital gains reforms on shares, Charlton said: “All the figures show that we actually have a reduced proportion of Australians investing in shares over the last 20 years, and that’s because the old regime was less generous towards shares than it was towards housing.”
Australians receiving dividend income has declined since 2001, according to the most recent budget papers.
Speaking to journalists at Parliament House in Canberra, Wilson said: “This government will come up with any spin or any excuse about why they’re going to punch down at the small businesses of this country. They’re focused on how they’re going to punish young Australians, in particular, and kneecap their pathways to get wealth and get ahead.”
Nick Newling is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
