Shadow Portfolio — 29 May 2026

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson used Question Time on 28 May to press the Prime Minister directly on whether capital gains for small-business owners will be averaged over five years, as they were under the pre-1999 system [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s119]. The question is pointed: CGT averaging was abolished in 1999 when the Howard government introduced the 50 per cent CGT discount, and its restoration would represent a structural change to how small-business asset sales are taxed.

Wilson's framing positions the opposition as the defender of small-business owners facing compounding tax pressure, and the question links directly to the coalition's broader package of proposals — bracket indexation and permanent instant-asset write-offs — that together constitute its emerging economic platform. This is a one-stream day with a single parliamentary record; the comms stream is absent, so the full opposition messaging picture rests on the chamber intervention alone.

That said, the question sits within a clear continuity: the prior daily Note records a coordinated media release and House debate on inflation and tax-bracket impacts, indicating Wilson is running a sustained, multi-day attack on the government's small-business tax settings rather than an isolated question.