ACCI Opening Statement: Senate Economics Legislation Committee inquiry into CGT changes

Transcript: 15 June 2026

David Alexander, ACCI Chief of Policy and Advocacy:

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has serious concerns about this Bill, which we believe will have a significant and sustained negative impact on investment and productivity.

At the big picture level, this is a very large new tax, raising more than $40 billion over ten years, a significant amount of which will impact on investment in business. 

This huge new revenue source is designed to play catch-up with blowouts in government spending, which is moving to a historic high of 26.8 per cent of GDP. The effect of the tax increase will be to lock in large, wasteful, and inefficient government. 

The growing transfer of resources from the high-productivity private sector to the low-productivity public sector will act as a drag on the economy.

There is no compelling economic reason why tax reform should require higher taxes on investment in business. That is the logical error at the heart of these changes. 

We actually need more investment in Australian businesses, not less, if we want to secure future prosperity.

There is no other path to having ongoing first world wages than to have a thriving business sector paying those wages, but that can’t happen if they are being dragged down with higher taxes. 

An extra perversity of the proposed capital gains tax changes is that the design entails punishing the highest productivity firms the most.

Think of all those businesses — small, medium and large, across any industry — whose operations are best practice. 

Under the proposed system, because these businesses make the biggest capital gain, they will suffer a disproportionate increase in tax.

The more the gain, the more the pain. It's a tax on productivity. 

It’s very disappointing that such a consequential and complex Bill is being rushed, because this means maximising the risk of poor legislation.

We urge Senators to consider the Bill and reject the increases in tax on investment in business.