Bob is back-Live with it R.W nutters

Yesterday’s Federal Budget was framed around fairness and intergenerational equity. That is a premise all of us should agree with. Younger Australians are being disadvantaged in many different ways: housing costs continue to spiral faster than incomes are growing, productivity growth is anaemic, and the next generation is set to inherit a debt burden it will have to repay. The reality of the Budget is something quite different. It significantly increased the tax burden on Australians trying to build businesses and create wealth for their families, their team members, and the country. That burden will fall disproportionately on younger Australians, because they are the ones starting and building those businesses over the next decade. On the other side of the ledger, very little has been offered in return. Ending negative gearing on residential property may dampen price growth, but on the Government’s own numbers the Budget will deliver very few new homes. Supply is the root cause of the housing crisis, and the Budget does not seriously address it. For startup founders, their teams, and small business owners, this Budget is a serious setback — and that cohort is disproportionately young. Incentives matter. Rules drive behaviour and behaviour drives culture. This Budget changes the rules in ways that will damage the economy and the future prosperity of Australians. Australia will be taxing capital gains at a higher rate than virtually any other developed country in the world. Our nearest developed neighbours Singapore and NZ tax capital gains at zero. We might accept the sacrifice if it delivered us something. It hasn’t. The Budget will do almost nothing to create future prosperity and nothing to improve fairness. As a country, it is time to grow the size of the pie rather than simultaneously shrink it and fight over the slices. The one genuine positive is the Government’s stated willingness to engage with the startup community on the doubling of CGT for founders and employees. The startup ecosystem will engage in good faith. The test now is whether the Government will too.