My business (and I personally) will qualify for the proposed tech startup carve out… but it's terrible policy. If these tax changes are so damaging that the Government needs to create special exemptions for tech companies and a subset of small businesses, that's an admission the underlying policy has serious flaws. Why should founders, employees and investors in one industry get relief while everyone else wears the cost?? What about the medium-sized manufacturers, retailers, healthcare businesses, agricultural businesses, professional services firms and the thousands of ASX-listed companies that employ millions of Australians? And what about the 7.7 million Australians who invest in shares outside super? They don't get a carve out despite facing much higher tax on successful long term investments. That gaping hole in the policy hasn't been fixed! This $77 billion transfer from the productive private sector and aspirational younger Australians to government will make Australia less competitive, discourage investment, productivity and entrepreneurship, and push more capital towards foreign investors who are often exempt from Australian CGT altogether. It's a massive own goal for the country.

After watching the Senate inquiry over the last couple of days, it's hard to see it as anything other than political theatre. The witness list seemed carefully curated to support the Government's narrative, despite mounting evidence that these changes will discourage investment, entrepreneurship and economic growth. With less than 24 hours' notice, we brought together 100 concerned Australians in the room right next door to hear how these changes could affect investors, founders, business owners, employees with equity and young Australians trying to get ahead. Many of the people who turned up at our event still haven't had their submissions published by the Senate inquiry, even though the hearings concluded today!! The full video from our "shadow inquiry" is worth watching and I'll share when it’s published tomorrow. Thanks to @GeoffWilsonWAM for organising. I think our two-hour discussion featured a much broader and diverse cross-section of Australians than the official two-day Senate hearing. The Australian newspaper has also covered it here: theaustralian.com.au/wealth/…