Will Labor revisit the unfair CGT on working Australians and retirees

DEAR News Of The Area,

I am sharing my recent correspondence with Meryl Swanson MP, Member for Paterson. I would like it to be published in the Port Stephens NOTA.

Dear M/s Swanson,

As our elected Federal MP, I am writing to express my concern about the recently announced changes to the capital gains tax (CGT) system.

These changes were widely understood to be targeted at housing and property investors with the aim to enable first home buyers to buy their first home.

Instead, they have been applied broadly to shares, managed funds, and even superannuation investments.

You must admit this change is purely a tax grab affecting millions of ordinary Australians who rely on long‑term growth investment for retirement, ie. superannuation.

Everyone in the Australian workforce, as well as retirees, is affected.

Australians have long been encouraged to invest in the share market, directly or through managed funds and superannuation, as a responsible way to build financial security, especially for retirement.

I am one of those retirees.

The sudden change in the taxation of these investments means the long-term investment aims of Australians are depleted through this unfair tax on investing for the future.

This tax grab disproportionately impacts:

• Retirees and pre‑retirees, whose superannuation balances depend heavily on long‑term capital growth.
• Every Australian with compulsory superannuation, or allocated pensions in retirement, will be the losers. Shares and managed funds will undoubtedly distribute higher taxable capital gains as dividends as a result of the tax grab.

Australians did not expect a policy that was initially expected to be framed around property speculation to become a tax hike on superannuation, managed funds, and long‑held share portfolios.

These changes also undermine confidence in the Labor Government and the stability of Australia’s tax system, particularly for those who have invested responsibly over many years based on the rules that were in place.

I, and many other Australians, urge the Government to reconsider the scope of these CGT changes and provide clarity on why a reform originally understood to target housing affordability has instead become a sweeping tax increase on retirement savings and investment.

Australians deserve a tax system that is fair, predictable, and aligned with building a retirement nest egg that would keep them from relying on government support in their older years.

Will your Labor Party consider revisiting this unfair CGT on working Australians and retirees and growth investments?

If I am incorrect in my assumptions, would you ‘please explain’?

 

Regards,

Paul Davies,

Medowie.