Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It's definitely true to say that tax reform has recently become a topic around many water coolers, and that's because it's at that converging point of a number of national crises, including the housing crisis, one cause of which is the tax system preferences property investors over first home buyers and growing intergenerational inequality, a big contributor to which is the fact that we disproportionately tax earnings from income, not wealth; and the energy supply crisis, which could be alleviated by an orderly phase-out of subsidies which prolong our addiction to expensive, unreliable and dirty liquid fossil fuels.

For these reasons and more, tax reform is a debate that this country has to have. It's also why I went to the community to hear their thoughts. I launched a survey to gauge people's thoughts on the capital gains tax discount— the rule that gives people who generate income from assets like investment properties a 50 per cent deduction on the tax payable on that income. To be clear, this was an online survey. It wasn't a poll. It had a large number of respondents—1,237—but it's not statistically significant.

Its purpose was to obtain a preliminary sense of the community sentiment on what is basically a major policy area in need of reform. Interestingly, 86 per cent of survey respondents were over the age of 45 years and 60 per cent were over the age of 60 years. A majority of those owned their own homes. More importantly, nearly 30 per cent of respondents owned at least one investment property. This is relevant because that group—investment property owners—is the group least likely to benefit by a reduction in the CGT discount.

The results may surprise you. Two-thirds of survey respondents were comfortable with the proposal that the CGT discount be reduced from 50 to 33 per cent. A further 11 per cent were open to considering it. Of those who owned investment properties, half were comfortable with that change and a further 15 per cent were open to considering it. In deciding whether to support CGT reform, the factor which most influenced respondents was whether the change would be one part of a broader effort to modernise our tax system; 56 per cent of people responded that way.

I'm heartened by all of this—by the number and the nature of responses to my survey, by the support being shown for sensible proposals for reform that aim to make secure housing more available and affordable for the next generation, and by the fact that people are open to change that might be contrary to their own interests. I take it all to mean that there is significant support in my electorate of Bradfield for big, bold ideas that might make our tax system better and fairer. Let's keep that conversation alive.

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