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Patrick Commons

Patrick Commons

Patrick Commins is the economics editor at Guardian Australia, covering tax reform and economic policy.

Jun 25, 2026

9:13
Yes.
9:14
But you can see that there is, you know, there is an issue there.
9:17
If you're saying we're going to inflation link your cost base and they're saying, well, our cost base is a zero, how is that going to work? So it's one of those things which is a reasonable issue to raise.
9:26
So what the government has done is they have said, well, okay, if you are the founder of, and wait for it, we've got to put this in quotation marks because it's going to be something which I'm sure people will talk about in the future, is genuinely innovative if you're a genuinely innovative startup with a very low zero cost base alongside your early investors and your employees you get paid with shares in the business then you'll be able to stick uh with the 50 flat capital gains tax discount you'll have that

14 MINS LATER

23:51
No, that's not happening.
23:53
I just want to ask Graeme, actually, because one of the things with the media coverage of this and having obviously been a reporter for quite a while, you know, if you have a room of 1,000 people and, you know, you tell them a new tax rule and it only affects 10 of those people, like 1% of those people, and they start screaming… Now, the way kind of we have a couple of national newspapers, they won't go and ask every single person, what do you think, and then report on it.
24:20
They go straight to those 10 people.
24:22
And you end up with, you know, story after story after story.

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