The CGT ‘backflip’ is more tweak than transformation. Labor hasn’t changed its mind on housing

The noise, negative headlines and internet memes that have surrounded Labor’s capital gains tax changes since their budget night unveiling made a backdown feel like an inevitability. It wasn’t a question of if concessions would be offered but rather when and, most importantly, how much they might undermine the original purpose. For a government and prime minister that has so often shirked confrontation, this was an early and significant test of Labor’s newfound commitment to hard – and necessary – policy reform. The suite of proposed changes that Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers announced on Thursday appeared at first blush to be a major rewrite of their budget centrepiece. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email It was reported as such in various media outlets, including The Australian, which described it as a “massive policy retreat” and a “backflip”. But on closer inspection, the substance of the changes are more tweak than transformation, a series of adjustments designed, at least in some cases, with the primary aim of neutralising the “scare campaigns” being mounted against them. The most significant change will increase the annual turnover threshold for a small business to qualify for the existing capital gains tax concessions from $2m to $10m. …