Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026

Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (12:12): Thank you to the honourable member for these amendments. I also want to thank COSBOA, particularly Skye Cappuccio, for the engagement the government has been doing, the consultation we have been doing, with the small business sector. I acknowledge as well the wonderful work of the Minister for Small Business, who's been doing some of this engagement and consultation as well.

As the honourable member I think rightly acknowledged, or has on other occasions, there are four CGT concessions for small businesses, and we're keeping all of them. That means that eligible small-business owners pay reduced or no capital gains tax when the time comes to sell. The vast majority of small-business owners are eligible for these concessions on top of the indexation or the current discount.

Our changes will mean that some people will actually pay less tax, depending on their circumstances, because the current arrangements undercompensate some investors for inflation while overcompensating others. Also, in the trusts changes that we have proposed there is generous rollover relief for small business. In the budget more broadly, Mr Speaker, you can see that we are big supporters of small business.

The budget was all about helping small businesses to invest and grow $3½ billion in tax cuts for business, particularly small business—whether it's making the instant asset write-off permanent, whether it's the two-year loss carryback, whether it's the loss refundability or whether it's expanding tax incentive for venture capital. There are a range of things we're doing, in addition to the 1½ million sole traders who will benefit from another tax cut from this government.

As the honourable member knows, we will do further consultation on the implementation details of parts of this legislation. That's entirely consistent with what we said in the budget papers and entirely consistent with how tax reform is undertaken by governments of both political persuasions. In the course of doing that consultation, in good faith, we look forward to talking more with the small-business community and its leaders.

The SPEAKER: The question is that the amendments moved by the honourable member for Kooyong be agreed to.