STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (13:41): I rise today to express the ongoing concern of my constituency—the small businesses and the hardworking Australians who have put aside their wealth and structured their affairs according to the tax and other laws that require them to organise their affairs into family trusts and other things that allow them to ensure their families are well off.

I note that, from the other side, the Labor Party members of the government have been raising issues with the Treasurer. Those like the member for Sturt, the member for Reid, the member for Parramatta and other people have been expressing their concerns about the capital gains tax discount changes that the government has made—not for the purposes of negative gearing, but other forms of investment vehicles and the properly-structured assets of ordinary Australians.

I want to add my voice to those concerns of those members in the government. Why did the government make these unannounced changes to the capital gains tax regime when, before the election, they promised they wouldn't? And how will it impact people?

Well, it has created immense uncertainty. What I hear from the average person who has used the tax laws—the existing law of the land—to structure their affairs is that the chaos and uncertainty are having a chilling effect on investment, a chilling effect on the flow of capital and a chilling effect on how people are going to be able to fund their families' lifestyle and retirement.

This isn't fair. And the government knows it. The government still hasn't articulated why these changes had to be made on these kinds of classes of investment.

Why should people be punished for putting aside money in savings? The government needs to answer these concerns.