Anthony Albanese would not be Prime Minister if it were not for Labor’s critics, an asset management boss has claimed, after the PM chided him at a press conference.
Mr Albanese was asked respond to Geoff Wilson’s criticism of the Labor government’s rumoured capital gains tax changes at a stand-up in Sydney on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister sarcastically welcomed the comments from the “unbiased commentator” and likened the Wilson Asset Management founder to Tony Abbott and John Howard.
“Geoff Wilson has opposed everything my government has done,” he said.
On Thursday morning, Mr Wilson told Sky News Australia the claim was untrue.
“First of all, I haven’t opposed everything his government has done,” he said.
“He wouldn’t have a job unless, I think, myself and a number of other people spoke out about the Bill Shorten and the Chris Bowen illogical tax on franking back in 2018.”
Asked squarely if he was “compromised”, Mr Wilson said “of course”.
“As a fund manager, yeah of course, I mean everyone’s got various interests,” he said.
“In terms of the impact (CGT tweaks will) have on our business, if they bring this in it’s probably positive because people will be more likely going for yield because capital is going to get taxed at double the rate.”
It comes after Mr Wilson lashed the Prime Minister in comments to SkyNews.com.au shortly after the press conference.
“Australia has a serious productivity and capital formation problem, and changes to capital gains tax that discourage long-term investment will only make that worse,” he told SkyNews.com.au.
“This debate should not be about personalities. It should be about whether Australia wants to encourage people to back businesses, create jobs and invest for the long term.”
“Taxing capital more heavily will damage confidence in the stability of our tax system and destroy aspiration for young Australians.”
Mr Albanese had been addressing reporters after a meeting of National Cabinet regarding fuel.
Sky News’ Matt Taylor raised Mr Wilson’s position against purported CGT changes at the time.
The Prime Minister contested the reporter’s characterisation of Mr Wilson as a “leading” asset manager.
“Tell me a leading asset manager and I’ll respond,” he said.
“Geoff Wilson has been a political participant for some period of time. Everyone knows that’s the case.
“So, I expect no different from Tony Abbott opposing whatever’s in the budget, or John Howard will oppose whatever’s in the budget and I’m sure that will receive publicity.”
The public spat came after Mr Wilson panned planned changes to the CGT as “economic vandalism disguised as fairness” earlier in the week.
In his social media post lambasting the planned CGT change, Mr Wilson outlined how a young asset holder would be disadvantaged under the change.
He said $10,000 invested today that compounded at 15 per cent annually for 50 years would grow to more than $10.8m.
Under the current 50 per cent CGT discount, the government would receive just over $2.5m in tax.
However, the government will receive more than double this amount, almost $5.1m, under the inflation-indexed regime.
Mr Wilson in 2019 had also criticised Labor’s 2019 franking credit proposal.
Franking credits changes are widely credited to have played a substantial role Bill Shorten’s 2019 election loss.
The refund adjustments were branded a “retiree tax” and saw Labor’s support tank in older electorates.