Greens to continue calls for Labor to end capital gains tax at Economic Reform Roundtable

The Greens will continue calls to end two key tax benefits for property investors, with the diminished minor party looking to rebuild after a near election wipe-out.

The Greens will continue their campaign to end capital gains tax concessions and negative gearing, as the diminished party looks to rebuild after an electoral disaster which resulted in the loss of former leader Adam Bandt and two other MPs.

The minor party holds just one seat in the House of Representatives, with Ryan MP Elizabeth Warren-Brown clinging onto her Brisbane seat despite a 5.2 per cent swing to Labor, while maintaining 11 seats in the Senate.

However, ahead of Labor’s Economic Reform Roundtable in August, new party leader Larissa Waters said the party would continue to advocate for negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions to be scrapped.

The benefits gives property investors to only pay tax on 50 per cent of the profit made from the sale, with the Greens arguing that it increases property demand and “turbocharges housing inequality”.

Greens Leader Larissa Waters will renew calls for Labor to scrap negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions for property investors. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

The policy was a key plank of the Greens unsuccessful election policy, which saw Mr Bandt, party housing firebrand Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates ousted.

“On housing, we know that there is so much more that the government needs to do in this term and we won’t stop pushing for an end to negative gearing and unlimited rent increases,” Senator Waters said.

“Getting changes to CGT discount would demonstrate the government’s willingness to fight for renters and first homebuyers, not rich property investors.”

While Anthony Albanese has repeatedly rejected changing the current settings, he faces opposition from rank-and-file members calling on a revision of the tax.

Grassroots advocacy group Labor for Housing has repeated calls for reform, stating the cost of the concession – about $20bn a year – should be redirected to public housing projects.

However the Coalition has seized on Labor after accidental Treasury advice urged Treasurer Jim Chalmers to consider increasing taxes to fix the budget deficit, with Sussan Ley vowing to fight against any new taxation plans.

Alongside scrapping the tax concession, the Greens have also called for tax breaks for new mums re-entering the workforce and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks for gas exporters.

Jim Chalmers has repeatedly said Labor has no plans to change the tax concessions. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

Complicated measures such as the family tax benefit, childcare subsidies and taxes can reduce the amount of take-home pay working mums are able to receive, with women sometimes left worse off when they transition to working to four or five days a week.

Senator Waters said parents should be “encouraged” to return to work, and not be “smashed by tax so hard they’re essentially working for free”.

“When a second parent goes back into the workforce, they can face an effective marginal tax rate of up to 80 per cent which punished mother for wanting to go back to work and perpetuates gender based economic disadvantage which haunts mothers for life,” she said.

“Right now, the government gives better tax incentives to investors like Clive Palmer or Gina Rinehart than it does to people who actually work for a living”.

Originally published as Greens to continue calls for Labor to end capital gains tax at Economic Reform Roundtable