The Budget Breakdown

Well, yeah.

I mean, I, I think the, the, the sort of general idea here is i- if you, if you've ever been to a ASX AGM, you'll know that, um, the, the, the audience is usually made up of older, wealthier shareholders, and they are being hit through the combination of changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing, and the taxation of trusts.

And this is designed to, i- in, in the words of Treasurer Jim Chalmers, to, you know, make it easier for first home buyers to get into the market by ensuring they have less, um, uh, less competition from investors.

And generally trying to tilt, equalize the, level the playing field, I guess, i- in terms of the taxation of income and capital.

Does it do all that? Uh, you know, I, I guess that remains to be seen.

Um, are there wrinkles with it? Yes.

Uh, y- you know, I, I think the application of the CGT changes and the negative gearing changes to property is good.

Uh, ma- perhaps the, the application of those changes to invest other asset classes like equities and certainly, um, early stage capital is a worry.

Um, and there's this general [laughs] question of how much intergenerational fairness is created when you grandfather all these rules.

Because in, in, in one way, as, as several critics have pointed out in the last couple of weeks, and particularly in, in response to the budget, you could see this as an older generation pulling the ladder up behind them.

They've grandfathered and locked in all the, uh, very advantageous tax treatment of their investments, and now younger investors going forward won't be able to access that same very advantageous tax treatment.

So I think there's a few wrinkles, but, but Alan, I, I'm, [laughs] I've...

It's, it's remarkable the number of people who said to me in the budget lockup, "I wonder what Alan Kohler will think of the changes around housing." Because there is a sense here that housing as an investment, the government is saying, "We don't want housing to be as, uh, profitable as an investment as it has been." And you dig into the budget papers, the government's also bravely saying, "We're happy to see house prices go backwards" –

Yeah

... which is something I, I don't think we've seen a, a, a government say in a very long time.