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August 7, 2025 15 mins

Labor is laying the groundwork for a major overhaul of Australia’s tax system. 

In just over a week, a hand-picked group of people from business, unions and government will gather in Canberra for an economic roundtable.

Already, a range of ideas are being touted for debate: from lowering company tax rates, to rethinking negative gearing, and a carbon tax.

The prime minister is watching carefully to see which ideas gain traction – and which are political poison – before claiming them as part of his own agenda. 

Today, press gallery journalist Karen Middleton on Anthony Albanese’s long game – and the way he wants to change the economy to change the country.

 

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Guest: Press gallery journalist Karen Middleton

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven AM.
Labour is laying in the groundwork for a major overhaul
of Australia's tax system. In just over a week, a
handpicked group of people from business, unions and government will
gather in Canberra for an economic roundtable. Already, a range

(00:24):
of ideas are being touted for debate, from lowering company
tax rates to rethinking negative gearing and a carbon tax.
The Prime Minister is watching carefully to see which ideas
gain traction and which are political poison before claiming them
as part of his own agenda. Today Press Gallery journalist
Karen Middleton on Anthony Albaneze's long game and the way

(00:45):
he wants to change the economy to change the country.
It's Friday, August eight.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Making our way forward depends on what all of us
can work together to achieve, and that's why I've asked
the Treasurer Jim Charmers to convene a round table to
support and shape our government's growth and productivity agenda.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Karen. Later this month, Jim Chalmers is locking business groups,
unions and NGOs in a room for three days. The
Government's talking about it as a major part of their
plans for economic reform. So how will it work and
what are they hoping to get out of it?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, well they're locking them in the cabinet room, no less,
in the middle of Parliament House. Now, this concept, the
Productivity round Table, which has been renamed the Economic Reform
round Table, was the brainchild of alban Easy and Charmers together.
It seems it's not clear exactly whose idea it was initially.
I think the Prime Minister has taken some credit for it.

(01:51):
But the underlying theme really is to come up with
an agenda for economic reform that really goes beyond what
they've already said they'll do.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
We want to build the broadest possible base of support
for further economic reform to drive growth. But it's productivity,
strengthen the budget and secure the resilience of our economy
in a time of global uncertainty.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
It's a three day meeting.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
The first day is titled Resilience, Day number two is
about productivity, and day number three is budget sustainability and
tax architecture. Now, we saw a guest list put out
in July kind of representatives of various sectors. So you've
got business the public sector, people from think tanks, the

(02:40):
unions will be there, and people with expertise and energy
and in the care sector.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
And I expect that there'll be a whole range of
viewers put forward, much of which is contradictory with each other.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
So it's a good spread of people.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
But also the government has said they need to gather
consensus before they.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Get in the rooms.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
So the treasure in the Prime Minister are trying to
marshal consensus behind various ideas, and they've laid out some
conditions for the ideas that come forward, and one of
those key conditions is they can't be a cost to
the budget bottom line.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
What we want is a focused dialogue and constructive debate
that leads to concrete and changeable action.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Can you tell me about some of those ideas that
are being floated publicly already and why it's significant that
it's unfolding that way and there's a condition on that.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yes, it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
The government lined up the Productivity Commission to roll out
a series of papers covering a number of the themes
that it wants to tackle. The first one, that talked
about tax, had some controversial ideas, including a cash flow tax,
we've seen some proposals around the environmental taxation that isn't

(03:50):
just a straight rerun of a carbon tax, but would
have a number of other dimensions to it with an
eye to the transition to more sustainable energy.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
And most recently we've.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Seen a paper from them on artificial intelligence, and that's
ruffling a few feathers because there was a suggestion in
that paper that perhaps there shouldn't be.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Too much regulation on AI as far as.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Building language models and training AI by feeding it works
that might be copyrighted.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
So that's causing some upset.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Business clearly is keen on getting some industrial changes. The
Union movement has resubmitted proposals to address concessions for property investors,
so negative gearing and the discounts for capital gains tax.
And will remember that was controversial for the Labor government
because it was a proposal put forward in opposition, but

(04:44):
they lost the election and they've been very reluctant to
embrace getting rid of those kinds of tax concessions ever since.
So there's a range of these kinds of ideas coming forward.
It's probably a bit bamboozling for the general public. And
at the moment we're not getting a hugely clear indication
of which those are likely to have consensus behind them,
And you do get the feeling that the government is

(05:04):
sort of watching to see what the public reaction is
to various things before it locks itself in behind anything too.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
So what sense do you have, Karen, as to whether
the Albanezer government is genuinely canvassing new ideas versus staging
a conversation where they already know their intended outcome.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Well, it's an interesting question, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well, the government will make decisions and the roundtable isn't
a substitute for government decision making.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
There was a complaint from some in the business community
after the Jobs and Skills Summit that they put on
in the first term that some of them felt that
they'd been used a little bit. They felt like the
outcome was actually preordained. I don't think we're in that
position this time. But you obviously have a government that
had a limited agenda going into the election and it

(05:57):
made a lot of the point.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
That it was doing what it.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Said it would do, and it got re elected on
that basis as well. So they are trying to create
momentum behind economic reform that they weren't able to tackle
in the first term of government. I think they're genuinely
looking for ideas, but I think they also have a
few of their own, and they're going to try and
steer the conversation in that direction.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
After the break. Does the government have the stomach for
big changes?

Speaker 5 (06:36):
But at the end of the day, it's the treasure
is going to be spending your political capital from the
election campaign. How much are you willing to see done here?
Are you willing to take a really significant reform agenda
from this roundtable?

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Be very clear, it's not a meeting at the cabinet.
We just have one of those to meeting in the
cabinet room.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
So, Karen, this roundtable is really about the Urbanezi governments
turning out its agenda for the next term. They have
a huge mandate and figuring out what to do with it.
Do you think they have an appetite for ambitious reform.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
I think they have an eye to reform that would
be lasting. So if you look at the last term
of government, they were elected as a global financial crisis
and a cost of living crisis in particular was becoming
full blown in the wake of the COVID pandemic, and
that really restricted the kinds of things that they could do.

(07:32):
They had to be seen to be addressing people's household needs,
and so they didn't focus as much on longer term
structural reform of the economy.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
They focused more on relief for households.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
But now they've been re elected, the economy seems like
it's turning around, interest rates coming down, people are starting
to feel more positive, so they want to do something
that is going to reshape the economy. They've also got
a huge problem with things built into the economy that
cost an enormous amount of money, like the Medicare system,
like the PBS Pharmaceutical Benefit scheme, like the National Disability

(08:08):
Insurance scheme, and they have to find ways to pay
for it. What we're not sure about is whether they're
inclined to cut back or misspending, or whether they're really
just looking for revenue raising measures to help pay for
what they want to do well.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
It's likely to require some form of tax reform, and
of course it's impossible to talk about tax reform without
the ghost of the twenty nineteen election being raised. Many
of the topics that are going to be discussed were
contentious for labor during that election. How is the government's
layering around some of those thornier issues changed. I'm thinking
about things like negative gearing and capital gains tax for instance.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, So when we heard the ACTU come out with
that proposal again on the weekend, everybody looked to how
the government reacted, and the Treasurer was not really kiboshing
it completely. He was saying things like that the unions
are entitled to put forward their ideas and he's been
encouraging kind of a thousand flowers to bloom and people

(09:09):
to come forward with their ideas, provided that they fit
in with all the criteria that they've laid down, the
kind of guardrails they've put around this about building consensus.
But since then we've heard that the Health Minister and
then the Prime Minister start to suggest that they don't
have any great plans to change the tax system.

Speaker 6 (09:27):
You know, I've said what our tax policy is, it's
very clear what it is.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
What is starting to emerge is a message that the
government is going to stick largely to the tax agenda
that it has for the time being, but that may
not rule out some changes going into the future.

Speaker 6 (09:45):
Is likely be he showed by the upcoming round table
power that can put forwardever idea they want. And what
you're saying is five or six ideas coming forward today.
That's a good thing. That's a good thing. It's not
government policy. Think government policies decided around a cabinet table.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
The thing is, if they're not going to make changes
to tax, it's not very clear how exactly they can
raise revenues, So it seems impossible to do that without
tackling some substantial things around tax. Certainly, the Prime Minister
has been pretty direct on the subject of the Goods
and Services tax, he does not want to muck around

(10:24):
with that. But beyond that, it's very hard to tell.
And as I say, the messages are a little unclear
with two weeks to go, how willing the government is
to tackle some of those more difficult tax questions.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, I guess one of the reasons the government's been
coy about some of these bigger reform issues is that
there's still a lot of debate as to whether shortens
ambitious reform agenda was actually poisonous, or if people just
didn't like he was selling it. So what sense do
you have, Karen as to whether there's public appetite for
BEG changes.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Well, I think people understand that the economy needs to
modernize and move with the times. We're seeing huge advances
in technology with artificial intelligence and the like, and that
does present huge opportunities. So I think people understand that,
but there's always caution about change, and the lesson that
the government has learned, well labor has learned when it

(11:19):
was in opposition and in government.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
Is you shouldn't get ahead of people.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
So whatever they decide to do, they're very, very focused
on making sure that they take people with them. Now
there is a lot of emphasis coming out of the
government that what really needs to be addressed in the
housing area is supply more than demand, and these tax
changes about negative gearing and capital gains tax would be
more focused on demand. But there's also an acknowledgment if

(11:47):
you talk to some people, that these issues do need
to be dealt with at some point. So the question
is when and whether this government, with this mandate that
it now has the size of its majority, whether that
is enough for it to be prepared to have a
look at how it could be the one to make
these changes.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
And finally, Karen You've said that Alberdezi is someone who's
always thinking a long way ahead. So what do you
think his long term vision is here? How would you
like to change Australia.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, I think he'd say he wants to make a
better and fairer Australia and to reshape the economy to
make it sustainable and create opportunities for all kinds of people,
regardless of what their personal upbringing and economic circumstances are.
What he does tend to do, in my experience, though,
is to set a sort of a policy goal destination

(12:38):
that he doesn't necessarily reveal, and then take steps towards that.
And you won't always see where he's trying to get
through along the way until he's a fair way down
the track.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
And I suspect some of this economic planning is about that.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
It's about creating an economy that is sustainable, that can
pay for itself, and introduce a policy that cares for
people and can't be easily undone. And he's also got
to tackle this huge question of climate change and once
and for all make some changes to get the energy

(13:13):
transition complete. So there's a range of things that are
I think he is probably in his mind, and he'll
be looking at small steps that are acceptable to the public,
saleable to the public in a political sense, but that
will help set a course to ultimately get to this
better and fair Australia that I think he's looking for.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Karen, thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Also in the news, US President Donald Trump said reciprocal
terrorists have taken effect. Last week, the United States introduced
a rap renewed tariffs on training partners, but kept taxes
on Australia exports at the baseline rate of ten percent.
Donald Trump has also threatened India with a fifty percent tariff,
which will take effect on the twenty seventh of August

(14:09):
unless it stops buying Russian oil. Meanwhile, Health Minister Mark
Butler is planning to speed up medicine approvals as the
US president threatens to put tariff's on two hundred and
fifty percent on pharmaceutical products. Mark Butler said Trump's threat
wouldn't affect a discount Australians received through the PBS, but
says he's seeking ad vice about accelerating the approvals process

(14:31):
for new drugs in Australia. Thanks for listening to seven am.
The show is made by Adicus Bastow, Chris Dengate, Ruby Jones,
Sarah mcviee, Travis Evans, Zeltenfet Joe and Me Daniel James.
Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan
of En Below Bordeo. If you enjoy our work, please
share it with your friends. It's the best way you

(14:53):
can support the show. Have a great weekend you

Speaker 2 (15:04):
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