The Albanese Government has refused to guarantee Australian farming families they won’t be worse off under the capital gains tax changes introduced to Federal Parliament.
With peak agriculture bodies warning farmers could face massively higher capital gains tax bills when transferring farm ownership to their children, the Coalition has urged the Minister for Agriculture to listen to their concerns.
The Shadow Minister for Agriculture Darren Chester said farmers would face additional stress and uncertainty, along with higher costs to manage their affairs if the legislation passed Federal Parliament.
“We have given the Minister several opportunities in Question Time this week to guarantee that farmers won’t be worse off under this budget of broken promises and higher taxes, but she refused to give a straight answer,” Mr Chester said.
“Our world-class farmers are good at managing risks like seasonal conditions, commodity prices and fluctuations in fuel and fertiliser prices. But how are they expected to manage the risk of a lying Prime Minister?
“Like everyone else, Australian farmers were never given the opportunity to vote on the tax changes because the Prime Minister misled the nation at the 2025 election.”
Mr Chester said the CGT changes made succession planning more difficult for farming families and peak farming organisations have expressed their concerns.
National Farmers Federation President Hamish McIntyre has said: “The Government still has time to get this right, but the message from agriculture is clear: The last thing this country should be doing is making it harder for the next generation to stay on the land. Family farms often represent farmers’ life savings, carefully invested in over decades to support their retirement and to provide a succession pathway for their children to enter the sector. We need to ensure changes to CGT don’t unintentionally compromise the future of Australian farmers.”
