No point investing in good businesses anymore

Looks like it's a done deal. Shares - whose capital gains we all know are the reason for the housing shortage, booming house prices, runaway rents AND climate change - will almost certainly be dragged into the vote-buying tax slug that is the basis of Saint Jim's rescue of Australia's economy.

For existing holders, you'll be grandfathered for 2/3rds your total gain at sale AND slugged at your full marginal rate on the remaining 1/3rd that is indexed on your original cost base.

For new investments made after the national public holiday (St. Jim's Day), you'll be slugged on 100% of your capital gain at your marginal rate, indexed on your cost base.

In both cases, if you've held assets long-term or have been savvy (or fortunate) enough to have allocated your hard-earned to the best businesses, the amount of money you'll be donating to buy extra votes for the Labor Government could jump anywhere between an ADDITIONAL 8% of your gain, up to 23%, if you are in the top tax bracket.

This is legalised THEFT, for 3 reasons:
(1) The right type of investor (long term/excellent allocator) is punished;
(2) The hard-working, aspirational young person, ironically having put his or her money into stocks because housing is unaffordable, misses out on the CGT discount....it'll be far harder now to build real wealth; and
(3) The nation - going forward - is being swindled. Instead of chasing companies and industries promising high growth, the new CGT regime will incentivise investors to chase mediocre, high-yield investments - the dual benefit being indexation and franking.

So why risk your capital on IPOs, rights issues, placements etc. in the primary market when you can play it boring and safe and just buy somebody else's shares on the secondary market?

I weep for Australia. Capital is scarce, it's what countries compete for, and our supposed "Saviour" is sending us in the wrong direction.