The Australian Greens welcome the ACTU’s calls to urgently address the unfair tax breaks that benefit property investors, as well as their call for a 25 percent levy on coal and gas exports at Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ Economic Roundtable.
The Greens’ have taken policies for changes to the CGT discount and negative gearing to successive elections. In 2025 the Greens’ policy to wind back these generous tax concessions to property investors which supercharge house prices was announced at the National Press Club in April.
Under the Greens election policy, both negative gearing and the CGT discount would be grandfathered to one existing investment property and removed on all second and subsequent properties, ensuring “mum and dad” investors with a single investment property are not negatively impacted, while disincentivising future speculative and unproductive investment in the property market.
The Greens also welcome the ACTU’s demand for a 25 percent tax on coal and gas export revenue. As former Treasury head Ken Henry has argued, fossil fuel exporters reap vast profits while paying minimal tax here and sending those profits offshore.
Greens Leader and spokesperson on Climate and Energy, Larissa Waters:
“People and nature should be the beneficiaries of the economic roundtable, and the mega profits of big companies should be in the government’s sights.
“We can’t fix the housing crisis unless we scrap massive tax discounts that give property investors a leg up while locking first homebuyers out of the market.
“It’s absolutely imperative that changes to negative gearing and CGT concessions are on the Economic Roundtable agenda. Young Australians shouldn’t be locked out of home ownership while a small cohort of investors get an unfair tax advantage.
“The cost of climate change shouldn’t be left to ordinary Australians. Fossil fuel exporters are mainly foreign companies that pay little to no tax and send their profits offshore along with our gas or coal.
“It’s time these big polluters paid their fair share, including for the damage they are causing to ordinary Australians whose cost of living and livelihoods are being exacerbated by climate change.
“A 25 percent levy on fossil fuel exporters should be on the summit and the government’s agenda.
“Nurses, teachers and community workers already pay more tax than oil and gas companies. That simply isn’t fair, especially when those industries’ emissions are driving more extreme weather events that we all suffer through.
“Australia urgently needs comprehensive economic reform that tackles both the housing crisis and the climate crisis.
“The Greens would be happy to see reforms in all of these areas come to the senate and to work with Labor to pass them.”
Senator Barbara Pocock, Greens housing spokesperson:
“If the Government genuinely wants to fix the housing crisis, scrapping tax breaks for wealthy property investors – such as the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing – is an essential and long overdue reform.
“Let’s be clear – this is a tax break for wealthy property investors, a tax break which comes at a cost to first home buyers and owner occupiers. This is also a tax break that increases levels of homelessness, which have increased by 10 percent under this government since it was elected in 2022.
“Massive tax breaks for wealthy property investors are cooking our housing system. Instead of everyone having a roof over their head, houses have become an investment asset class – which fuels intergenerational inequality.
“Instead of funding tax breaks for rich property investors, this government could be redirecting funds to building more public and affordable housing.
“Unless the Government makes the necessary reforms to the tax concessions for property investors, we’ll continue to see house prices rise and rents spiral. The Greens stand ready to work with Labor to action this urgent reform.”
