Our tax system needs comprehensive reform to make it simpler, fairer, and more efficient.
Currently, we have a patchwork of taxes designed for a different era, creating complexity for individuals and businesses while failing to deliver equitable outcomes. I support the work that Independent MP Allegra Spender has done, as outlined in her White Paper on personal tax.
Personal taxes are one part of the picture. We need a broad examination of all inefficient taxes that hold back small businesses, to ensure multinational corporations pay their fair share, and to provide relief for families facing cost of living pressures. I recently wrote to the Treasurer to request a review of the GST threshold for small business, and am supportive of taxes that extract a greater return to Australia for our natural resources.
The major parties have avoided meaningful tax reform due to vested interests and fear of political backlash.
As your independent member for Bradfield, I am pushing for evidence-based tax reform that supports economic prosperity while ensuring the benefits are shared fairly across our community.
Capital Gains Tax Reform
We need tax reform. My goal is to be a constructive voice who helps get it right — which means being honest when the detail falls short.
When the 2026–27 Budget proposed changes to CGT, I surveyed Bradfield on both sides of it and took the results to the Government.
With over 1,400 responses in total, it was clear that the Government’s capital gains tax reforms are right on housing, unfinished on other assets. The 50% CGT discount and negative gearing has distorted our housing market for a generation, putting investors and first-home buyers in direct competition and pricing younger Australians out of ownership.
The Government sold its reforms as a housing policy, so I pushed to hold them to it: ring-fence the changes to residential property, and consult properly before extending them further.
A small business or start-up founder who spends a decade building a company and employing Australians is not a passive property investor. A business sale is the reward for risk taken across a working lifetime, but the Budget failed to recognise that.
There is good news on this front: after sustained advocacy, the small business CGT threshold has since been lifted from $2 million to $10 million in turnover.
Below you'll find the work I've been doing on economic management and tax reform — in Parliament, in the media, and here in Bradfield.