Australian Federal Budget Breakdown: How This Will Impact Your Wallet

We break down Australia’s new federal budget in plain English, then argue about who wins, who pays, and what it does to investment, housing, and small business. We walk through the biggest tax changes and housing policies, then call out what we think is smoke and mirrors versus what could actually move the needle.

• What a federal budget forecasts and why deficits matter 
• The size of government revenue, projected deficits, and Australia’s debt 
• Capital gains tax basics and why removing the 50% discount changes investor behavior 
• Negative gearing rules for established properties versus new builds and what that means for first home buyers and rents 
• Discretionary trust distributions and the shift to a 30% minimum tax 
• Small business measures like the $20,000 instant asset write-off and loss carry-back rules 
• Personal income tax bracket changes and why we’re skeptical of the net impact 
• Fuel excise cuts and why prices still feel brutal 
• Free access to Australian standards and why it may not change much day to day 
• Apprentice incentives, trade shortages, and how training really works on site 
• Housing supply plans, modular construction, migration settings, and planning approval delays 
• What we wish government focused on instead, including red tape, energy costs, and incentives to grow businesses 

Speak to your advisors, speak to an accountant.

Transcript

Breaking News Energy And Why Now

Robby 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, we're coming to you live from the Million Dollar Days podcast studio for this midweek broadcast. Tuning, what do they what do they say when they cut broadcasting in the middle of the, you know? Coming to you live with breaking news. Donald Trump is at it again. Um ladies and gentlemen, we are uh jumping on in the middle of the week to discuss something that I think is super important. And uh I'm joined by my co-host, entrepreneur was running late to the podcast this morning, Mr. George Passis. Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you for having me, Mr. Roberts. Welcome, welcome. So I I wanted to I called, I walked into your office yesterday and I said, George, we need to do a podcast about this. I think it's very important. And it seems to be a very hot topic. Rightly so. I wanted your uh I wanted your expertise because I feel like this is a hot topic and people don't quite understand it. And I feel like you and I uh we can do a really good job of well, not just discussing it, but breaking it down. Yeah, we're in the trenches as well. Yeah, you know what I mean. So uh it's the federal budget that's just been released by the Labour government. First of all, gunsy head, positive or negative? The budget? Yeah. Let's let's let's leave what how we feel about it till the end. Okay. Okay, let's go through it. That's a good idea. Yeah, let's go through it. Let's break it down and then let's Because I'm definitely skewed to one side. Yeah, but I think so. I've done a lot of research on this. And the reason why I did research on this, because last time we did a political episode, we got grilled. We got grilled, didn't know anything about anything.

George 1:44

Absolutely.

Robby 1:45

What was that topic about anyway? Uh who to vote for? Or something like that. And we we absolutely took the piss and uh everyone was looking, turning to us serious political episodes.

George 1:56

I actually don't I actually think that was a great episode, not because it got views or anything like that, but from the perspective of we uh we were and still are a reflection on so many people. Yeah, dude, I guarantee. Do you know what I mean? Like you don't walk down the street and everyone's a political fucking expert, but everyone feels the on-flow effect of everything they do. Yeah, and this budget's gonna be that as well, regardless of whether you understand it, regardless of whether you like it or hate it, it's going to affect you.

Robby 2:25

100%. 100%. So, what I want to do is I want this episode, George, to be something where people can turn to and say, okay, cool. Like, hey, dude, I guarantee you, me included, prior to going and diving in as much as I have for this, for the for preparation for this, I'm doing this selfishly so I could learn. Like, and I think a lot of people are gonna benefit from it. Good. Uh, but prior to that, no fucking clue what a budget was. Like a budget, like is this a spreadsheet? Yeah, on Excel. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, are you saying how much I can spend on food? What's the budget? Um so did

What A Federal Budget Actually Does

Robby 3:05

you know? Well, uh, because every year, every year, for those of you listening, every year uh the government releases a budget, right? They do it prior to the end of the uh financial year for the oncoming financial year. And they tell you, put simply, they predict how much they expect to earn, how much they expect to spend, whether they're gonna make money or lose money, and you they show you where they're focusing their spending on, which tells you that government's priorities.

George 3:36

Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. So first of all, are we in a surplus or a deficit? Are they forecasting? Do you know that?

Robby 3:43

Yeah, I dude. I've got I've got everything here, John.

George 3:46

Look at where you look at you. I've never seen you so pumped. I'm politics.

Robby 3:50

I'm so pumped. I'm gonna get into Australian politics. Uh I've actually got some statistics that I think will blow you away, dude. Okay. Um do you know how much money the government makes a year? No. Can you take a wild guess? Uh did you okay, wait, wait, before we do that, did you watch the budget?

George 4:14

No. Okay, have you looked into it post? Yeah. Not not uh not uh not more than what I know. Okay, not more than what you know. As in from what I've heard online, light research. Okay, let's start here.

Deficit Reality And National Debt

Robby 4:29

Okay. So the gut the the budget's all about what money they're coming in and where they're gonna spend it. Okay, they are not gonna be in a surplus, we're gonna be in a deficit again. I think this is the statistic is something like uh last surplus was 2022, last surplus prior to that was 15 years. Yeah. So there's like a 20-year run with one year where they've made money.

George 4:54

Which party was in power in 22? I don't know. It's the same party, isn't it? Don't know.

Robby 5:00

It is, isn't it? It hasn't been a change in government. No, not since 22. Yeah. No, you're right. Yeah. Um, okay. Guess how much money the Australian government will make or are expecting. Like the so they're they're budgeting for what they think they're gonna make. Guess how much they think they're gonna make in. It would have to, is it in the trillion is it in the trillions? 25, 26 uh financial yeah. It's not in the trillions.

George 5:25

Okay. Then yeah, high billions, I would think.

Robby 5:27

Yeah, 800 billion.

George 5:29

Yeah.

Robby 5:30

800 billion. Dude, is that not, is that not like for me, I was like, I couldn't believe it. So that's a big that's a big number. I I look at it, yeah, massive. And I get it, I get it. We're a nation. I understand. That's right.

George 5:44

But like 800 billion? Yeah, we're not that big. Here's the thing. I I reckon people look at that and that's a massive number, right? And because it's so big, you've got people who cannot fucking manage a milk bar managing this budget. Go, oh, well, we got 800 billion, we can spend $10 million on this, we can spend $50 million on that, we can spend $13 million on bins. That's where I think this um whole mindset is coming from. Because we've got a I think we've got a spending problem with our government in this in this country. They spend more money than they make. And that's like if you do that in business, that's illegal. You can't do that. Right? So why are we doing that as a country? And it shits me how they operate and how they just go, oh, this, this, this. We got in we got owe money to this person, owe money to that person. Our interest is in the millions per fucking second, whatever it's gonna be.

Robby 6:37

Do you know how much the deficit is? The expected deficit for I think it's like 40 billion. Yeah. So they're expecting to lose 40 billion dollars.

George 6:47

So where does that 40 billion come from? They're gonna borrow it. They borrow it. Yeah, from another country. Do you know how much debt Australia's in? No, but probably heaps. 980 billion dollars. So so they need to they need to not spend money for a year and just save just to even get fucking into it.

Robby 7:02

Yeah, if they didn't spend a dollar, they would almost break even with their overall debt. But I I I think that's not the goal.

George 7:08

The goal is to there's never a plan, but is there a plan to ever pay that debt off? Like, where do you where does this debt go in the next 20 years? Does it just keep going up? At what point has it been? Yeah, it has. But this is a thing, right? You look at, I mean, years ago you would, and then probably now, Greece, they were bankrupt. Like, is it gonna get to that point for this country? Is it gonna get to the point where, hey, we've got a trillion dollars in debt and I don't know how to pay it back? Like, are they ever chipping away at it?

Robby 7:38

Sorry, I I I correct what I said. 31.5 billion is the expected deficit for the for the coming year. And current year is $28 billion. Uh 2324 was the last time. Oh, sorry, 2324 and 2223 was the last two surpluses.

George 7:56

So they make a surplus. Does it go to paying that off prior to that? It was 2008. As fuck. Um, yeah, which is wild. It's wild, it's wild, right? And and what shits me about this is I feel a lot of this budget is they can't manage their money. So the only way they know how to get more money is to go and change the tax system and and make the people pay. And then some of those points which you brought up, I think are just smoke and mirrors for the other way they're screwing you in the background. Which ones? So the tax breaks. Oh, the changes.

Robby 8:32

Yeah. Okay. So let's go through, let's go through the major changes that are coming into play. Okay. So I'm gonna I'm gonna touch on all 11. I'll name them, and then we'll go through each one one by one. Okay. And then uh for those of you listening, we'll we'll break down, I guess, what it is, uh how it affects you, and if anything, uh just for the record, this is not financial advice. Yes. But what you should do, what you should, or what what we might do, maybe, and then you can do whatever you want. Um, okay, so from my research, I found that the major changes, there was there were 11 deemed major changes. Okay. The first one, and this is probably the one that's kind of upset the most people from what I've seen, because hey, the the overall consensus online from what I'm seeing on my social feeds, is not positive. No. At all. Yeah, not at all. You know what I mean?

George 9:30

I think this budget's detrimental to the government winning the next election. Yeah. Surely they knew that when they fucking released this. And they this is what pisses me off as well. It's like everyone, like the whole way through, they're like, are you gonna change the major one's always a capital gains tax? I think that's the biggest chart, the biggest one that everyone's talking about. So everyone's like, are you gonna change it? Are you gonna change it? Are you gonna look at it? Are you gonna do this? Uh and the whole way they've been no, their last election promise was we will not touch the capital gains tax, and that's our position, and we will look after and negative gearing. Yeah, negative gearing. We will not touch it. Like they that was their election promise. That's vote us in, this will, this will not happen. Like the biggest fucking thing. Yeah, look at what's happened.

Robby 10:09

And they say this is politics 101. It is, but it's just what did Trump say?

George 10:13

I'm a peacemaker, no wars. Yeah, we're about to enter World War III. Yeah, but the what shits me though about that is well, you're blatantly lying. You've lost all trust. I I think, regardless of who's in power, most of the time, they're all gonna do this sort of shit and play these sorts of games and tell these sorts of lies. But I'm just sick. Yeah, I think the Labour government's fucked for the longest time. I don't think they know how to manage a budget, how to spend money, how to do the right thing. The only way they know how to do it is by punishing the people of the country. They don't utilize our resources. We don't make enough money from those things, from those ventures, from those avenues, and we get we're the ones that ultimately pay for it. Now, um, my point with that was, yeah, so that was their election promise. And what they say, well, the information we had back then, and this is uh I feel that this is just a cop-out anytime they fucking say this. I feel it's a massive cop-out. They say the information we had back then had our position saying we weren't gonna change the negative gearing or the um capital gains tax. Because now the situation has changed, so we need to do what's best for the country. A lot of people are not gonna like that, but we're brave enough to make the tough decisions. Go fuck yourself. You're brave enough, okay? Because I see that as the biggest fucking cop out, and you're just going, well, we have to be big and strong, and I know it's gonna be painful for some people and all this sort of shit. And that just that just pisses me right off. Yeah. So if you want to jump into that one first, seeing as I just brought it up.

Robby 11:45

Well, let me go through all the 11. Oh, you want to go through them first?

George 11:49

Okay, cool.

Robby 11:50

Just name them so that people know what we're gonna cover off on the whole episode. So the first one's negative gearing, the second one, capital gains, which is the one you just discussed. The third one is trust distributions. Um, then there's a $20,000 instant asset write-off, two-year loss carry back for businesses, $1,000 instant tax deduction, personal income tax cuts, fuel excise, uh, free access to Australian standards, which you should be super happy about, George.

George 12:16

I'm gonna get into that.

Robby 12:18

Yeah. Apprentice and skilled trades package and the housing supply and modernization package. So let's so you feel like the biggest pushback has been from what you've seen, has been on the capital gains.

George 12:30

That's the most of the content that I'll see and discussions that people are saying. Yes.

Robby 12:34

Yeah, okay. I've seen the negative gearing. Yeah, okay. Yeah, predominantly.

George 12:38

Yeah.

Robby 12:38

Um, but I'm happy to dive straight into the capital gains one if you Yeah, we can start that one first. All right.

George 12:44

So um it just so the the short of it, it doesn't encourage people to go out there and start investing their money in things, knowing that now, well, I have to now give more of my hard-earned cash to this person, to

Capital Gains Tax Discount Gets Scrapped

George 13:01

the government.

Robby 13:01

So, so let me break it down for the listeners. Capital gains tax is tax you pay on any assets you own that have capital growth. Okay. Meaning if you buy a house and you buy it for $1 million and you sell it for $1.5 million, the $500,000 growth is you would be charged capital gains tax on. Now, they used to have a capital, a 50% capital gains tax uh discount. Meaning if you held the property or the assets, the stocks, whatever it is, for longer than 12 months, you would only pay capital gains tax at your tax rate on half the growth. Meaning if you grew 500,000, you're only taxed on 250. 250, correct. That's wiped. That's been completely wiped, dude. And I think this that's that's a wild thing to wipe. It's huge.

George 14:04

Yeah, it is huge. I'm telling you, like why? So thinking from an investment point of view, you've just you've just shot yourself in the book. You're trying to grow the country. You're trying to get people to go buy shit, to go and and create wealth for themselves, build more homes, do whatever it's going to be. Most people do it through property or through stocks. They're the main two investment classes that people are looking in these days.

Robby 14:28

Yeah. So that they've changed it to two, they've changed it, there's two new rules on how this runs. So prior to capital gains tax being implemented, uh, oh the capital, sorry, capital gains tax discount being implemented, they had uh this thing called cost index taxation. Cost, sorry. Cost base indexation, that's the word. And what that was was based you only pay tax based on the growth minus inflation. So if there was, you know, 10% inflation last year, then you pay tax on 90%. If there was 50% inflation, you pay tax on 50%, and so forth. So the whole idea is like, well, we're gonna factor in inflation to your growth, which is kind of like a hey man, I'm gonna stab you and then I'm gonna give you a band-aid, in my opinion. Um the other, yeah, and then the other thing is like it's now 30% minimum tax, applies to all catalogs. The whole thing. So even if you're like you have no income and you make a certain amount, it doesn't work based on your tax bracket or anything like that anymore. It's all like cool, 30% flat fee. Yeah, like no matter what, it's 30% minimum. Sorry, 30% minimum, not flat fee. Okay. Um yeah, so to break it down from a cost standpoint, like so just so just so people really understand the numbers. If you made $500,000 on a property, you were taxed on your tax rate at half. Now you're gonna be taxed at like let's just say you do it over five years, you're still gonna be a significant amount of inflation in that. Oh, no, like it's gonna be a significant amount, it's not gonna be 50%. Right. You know what I mean? But and you're still gonna be taxed so much more. Yep. They're gonna make more money off you. They're gonna make way more money off you. They half 50% of the income, uh, 50% of the government's income is tax income.

George 16:21

Yeah. So $400 billion.

Robby 16:23

Personal tax income. 400 billion. That's a lot of fucking money.

George 16:30

That's what I mean. You've got people who don't know how to manage the business, like the comp the country, and the only way to do that is to go, well, we don't know how to handle money, so we're gonna take yours.

Robby 16:40

Yeah. And this is way beyond property. Like it's anything. Anywhere you the only thing that's exempt is uh self-managed super funds.

George 16:48

Yeah.

Robby 16:49

That's the only thing that's exempt from this. Yeah. Uh now I read something really interesting, which I'm struggling to find now, but I can't remember where. I've read it and it said something along the lines of this had been introduced in New Zealand. It lasted two years, and they rolled it back.

George 17:05

Yeah, I think the next election, you watch, it'll happen. The next election, the uh Liberals will come out and say, We're gonna get rid of this. And everyone's gonna vote for them. That'll be their major ploy. Like, this is I think, as I said, I think Labour have shot themselves in the foot by doing something so dumb like this.

Robby 17:25

Yeah.

George 17:26

I hope so. I hope so. They're all fucked. I'll I think we need it, I think we desperately need a change. But um, you know, and look, I've traditionally I've always voted for the Liberal Party. Would I swing? I would swing if a if a party was just doing the right thing. I I would consider myself a swing voter, but traditionally I've been a liberal voter. A swing voter? Yeah, like I would go to one or the other, but again, I just haven't seen anything for a long time that's made me go, okay, I'm gonna vote for this person. I think the last election, I didn't actually vote for liberal, funny enough. I voted for some other guy who was aligned with liberal, I can't remember his name. The Greens. No, oh fuck me. It made me throw up.

Robby 18:09

Um yeah, so but these are the things I think you really need to factor in. Like if you've got if you've got if your whole wealth plan is based around property, it's like this is a significant like they've just thrown something massive at you. Or or or any real like if you've got a lot of money in the in the stock market, same concept. Yeah, do you know what I mean? Uh and if you moving on to the the the first point that I was gonna mention, which was like the negative gearing, right? Which which is I I would say is the number one thing that I've seen on my feed. Like people kicking up a fuss around uh negative gearing. Okay, so let's get into that one. Yeah.

Negative Gearing Shake-Up For Investors

Robby 18:58

So negative gearing, negative gearing is a tax strategy. Okay, you buy an investment property, rent it out, but if your costs are higher than the rent coming in, that's claims there's a loss on paper, and then under the current system, that loss can be deducted from your other income. You're not allowed to do that anymore. But sorry, let me be clear. You're not allowed to do that for any property purchased from May 12th at 7:30 p.m. Anything prior to that, you can do that. The only thing you can do it for is new builds. Now, I watched an interview last night of your mate, Albanese, uh, and someone was questioning him about uh why would you do this? Like you've just impacted a whole lot of property investors. He goes, no, no, the reason we did this was, and I I'd love your opinion on this, George. He goes, the reason we did this was young people can't get into the housing market. He goes, so we're only doing this on established homes. He goes, and they set this rule, it's called the grandfathering rule or something like that, where anyone prior, you're not impacted. Yeah, it's only impacted from this point moving forward, and it's only impacted for established properties. He goes, So if you want a negative gear, go buy a new home.

George 20:07

And you can negate So he's trying to encourage people to buy new homes and build new homes.

Robby 20:11

Yeah, he's like, if you want to, if you want to negative gear, go buy a new home. You can still do it. We're not taking it away because we're just giving first home buyers the opportunity to buy into the established property market.

George 20:23

Yeah, but then what are you talking about? So when you're saying first home buyers, youngers, yeah, yeah.

Robby 20:28

But if they buy a home, it's it's it is uh so they're saying any yeah, so you have to buy a new home.

George 20:36

And then how many first home buy because you just said it was a new home, it will apply. As an investor. Oh, as an investor.

Robby 20:43

As an investor, so you can't negative gear a home you're living in, right? No, no, no, that's right. Yeah. So you as an investor, now they're like, hey, you can still buy property, but what we're doing is we're taking you out of the picture for people who we're reducing the amount of competition for established properties. That's what we're trying to do. They're reducing the overall amount of competition for established properties to say, okay, cool, like for people who are up and coming and want to buy a home, we need to put them into a position where they can buy a home. And we're gonna do that by removing a large portion of people who are competing for these homes, and that's the investor market. And saying, hey, if you want to buy this property, you can't do that tax rule anymore. The only way you can do that tax rule is if you buy new homes. And I look, my first impression when he said that, I was like, you know what? That makes sense. That was not that. It was it was positioned as a horrible thing to me from an online standpoint. Of course. And then I watched that video and I thought, that's a good point. Like that's actually really a good point. Because I I think people don't quite factor like you dude, you get a you get a I don't know, $700,000 loan, which is not really a lot compared to house prices. Paying, you know, 50, 60 grand a year just in uh mortgage repayments. Yeah, you know what I mean? You get a $1.5 million loan, you're paying $100, you need you need to be earning significantly well to have a loan of $1.5 million because you got to pay $120,000 a year just in mortgage repayments. So it's like crazy, isn't it? That's wild, dude. Two grand a week for what? Like you're paying $10,000 a month just in mortgage. Like, what's your mortgage? 10 grand a month. We haven't eaten, haven't paid any bills. Don't go on holiday. Haven't accounted for holidays. Fuel, car, insurances. It's like that that's a that's a significant amount of money that people don't think about. Right? So I don't know, what are your thoughts? Because dude, I was like, I I was I was thinking, fuck, you know, you've really fucked some people here. Like the amount of unhappiness I was seeing across the board was the thing that made me think that.

George 22:58

If I had a property, if I was um, if I was in that space, I would, I would actually want my property to be positively geared. Yeah, yeah. But why do you want it to be losing money so you can offset your person, like your tax? I would want properties to be positively geared. That's fine. Not an issue with me. I would want to be making money on every single one of my investments, not going, oh, I've taken a loss here, so I can now get a bit more money on the back end.

Robby 23:24

Yeah, but I think it's a it's a bigger play. Yeah. It's not about offsetting what you were going to give away to the government.

George 23:31

These first home buyers, I I think they're encouraging greenfield sites as well, like new housing developments. Because which new home, not many new home buyers or young people getting into the market, as you said, can go and afford a $1.5 million new built home. Say that again. I said, I reckon they're encouraging people to be buying in the development sites, so urban sprawl, those types of areas. Because as a first home buyer, so it doesn't so they're trying to encourage the younger people to be able to afford a home. Correct? Yeah. So assuming that's what how they've positioned. Yeah, that are they actually trying to. Yeah, well, that's right. Assuming most young people are not going to be able to afford to buy a home where they grew up in, brand new, if they lived in the inner eastern suburbs, you're going to need two, three million dollars to buy a brand new home.

Robby 24:26

But the idea is the competition should go down. That's the concept. So the market works through supply and demand.

George 24:33

The competition will go down because established people won't want to go and get an old home. Investors won't want to go and get an old home because they won't be able to get negative gearing on it.

Robby 24:46

Spot on. So look at it like this. Let's just, I'll split it straight down the guts, and let's just say 100% of buyers, imagine 50% are buying to live in and 50% are buying to invest. Okay. Now, if I've just made a rule where if and most investors play this game, not all, but most investors go down the negative gearing route. If I've just removed you know 80% of that market, I've just reduced the size, the the size of the pool of buyers for these established properties now.

George 25:15

Well, it'll be interesting. It will be interesting to see if the public if that happens though, if that transponds. Yeah, well, do you know what I mean? Because maybe some of these people, these investors, they go, well, no, no, we're gonna knock this down, we're gonna build new home, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this. So it may still not have the desired effect. Yeah, so I I don't know. I don't I'm a bit skeptical about that one. I don't know if that would work. I don't know if it's gonna be actually benefiting new home buyers to go buy it to get into the market. I think an investor will still come along and look at a property, whether it's they're gonna keep that particular property. Most investors are gonna generally, you would think, either rely on the capital growth of the property or but that's that's changed. Yes, well, you've got that.

Robby 26:06

So they've they've cut it on both sides. They've sliced it up in in many ways where it's like, okay, well, even if you were gonna do that, we're still gonna get you there.

George 26:14

Yeah. So this what so you how are you how is not encouraging that a good thing? How is that not in like so now we're I'm builder? We're actually funny enough, before this budget, we were looking, and probably still, I was still looking, but we're looking for sites to buy. And it's very, very difficult to make things stack at the moment in Melbourne, anyway. Looking at sites and you're like, okay, that's what it's gonna cost to buy. I know what it's gonna cost to build thereabouts. This is what it's gonna cost to sell. Three separate numbers, very easy equation. Then you go, tax, this one, fees, agent fees, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're not making any money at the end. Yeah. And it's like, well, why am I gonna go do that? Why am I gonna go through the risk of construction? What's the point? So, why am I gonna now go and build a new home for some that someone could buy? And go, oh, well, here you go, Mr. New Person trying to get into the market. You can buy a brand new home and not be affected by negative gearing. Because that investor that puts his nuts on the line to build that home never gets fucking built anymore because he's like, I'm not gonna do that. That's dumb. So do you think that do you think it's do you think it's gonna have a negative?

Robby 27:24

I think I don't think negative outcome on construction. Trying to polish a turd.

George 27:28

Yeah, but do you think it's gonna have a negative outcome on construction? I think at the moment, before this budget came out, it's difficult to make the job stack. Not impossible. They're out there still. Just difficult.

Robby 27:40

Yeah, yeah. And we spoke about this in a couple weeks ago.

George 27:44

Was it last week, whenever it was?

Robby 27:45

Yeah, we spoke about this in some.

George 27:47

We spoke, we spoke. We speak a lot. We talk a lot and a lot and about a lot. But I think just talking out loud now, that makes sense to me. I'm a developer, I'm trying to find a site, I do my numbers, I'm not gonna build this new, it's not worth it. I'm not gonna make any money. Or I'm gonna make 20 grand, make 20 grand sleeping. No, but there is there is more benefit for them to build. Well, they built because now the person that's gonna buy it isn't gonna is more in is more inclined to buy it. Well, there's two sides.

Robby 28:17

So that they are if they hold on, like if they're building as an investor, if they hold on, they get negative gearing. They have the or they have the option to to exercise that.

George 28:26

Yeah, okay. Uh yeah, so if they build new homes, they can have negative gearing.

Robby 28:30

Yeah.

George 28:30

Or the investors. But now I I again I look at it from a perspective as an investor. I don't think negative gearing is a great strategy for wealth.

Robby 28:39

Yeah, I know, but like this is not about people do it.

George 28:41

This is of course this is not about I mean as an investor, it is. No, no, no, no. I'm trying to create wealth, I'm not trying to do anything else. I'm saying um this this conversation. I got I just got a notification on my watch. Abnormally high heart rate. It's fucking pumping me up. You can't up, huh? Abnormally high heart rate. It's weird. There you go. Um pumped. Feel like I'm fucking pumped. Yeah. Um so yeah, that's just talking out loud. Again, not claiming to be an expert, but talking out loud, this doesn't encourage me as a developer right now to go, cool, let's go. What a great budget.

Robby 29:22

Oh, it definitely doesn't do that. Um I think that's a problem. Without a doubt. Without a doubt at all. What's an example? Um but just on just on that, just on that before we keep going. Um this is this is the thing I found interesting. I was actually saying it about the capital gains. It was actually about new uh negative gearing. So sorry, I correct myself there. New Zealand removed interest to deductibility for residential investors in 2021, then reversed itself in 24-25 when rents spiked. So all of a sudden people weren't willing to buy anymore and rents went through the roof. Yeah, right. Okay. Canada raised its CGT inclusion rate, capital gains tax inclusion rate in 2024, and then cancelled the increase in March 2025.

George 30:04

Yeah. So it's like we're we're it's kind of like it's been modeled elsewhere.

Robby 30:09

Yeah, it's like you've seen someone hit their head and you're like, let me try it.

George 30:11

Let me, yeah. Okay. What a great coming up with the analogies today. We've got more to go as well, guys. I'm on. Um all right. Anything else you'd like to someone stabbed you? Someone just stabbed you and he's a bad. Yeah, it's like that's what someone hit your head. It's like, let me see if I can hit my head if it feels any different.

Robby 30:27

Yeah, it's like, hey, we're gonna stab people, but but we're giving out free band-aids. Yeah, guys, there you go. Uh that's the first two. Anything else you'd like to say about the negative gearing or the CGT. So far, so far wiped. No good. You're not happy. Not happy. George is not out. Go. Uh, George is not happy. All right, change number three.

Trust Distributions Face Minimum Tax

Robby 30:49

Discretionary trust distributions hit with a 30% minimum tax. Okay. So you probably like it. There's some big words. A discretionary trust is a legal structure where a trustee holds assets on behalf of beneficiaries. So basically it's a it's a financial structure that allows you to choose who you pay. Yep. Uh and the idea behind your profits. Yeah, no idea behind it was you could distribute profits to the beneficiaries based on what was going to get you the best outcome. Yeah. Um, yeah, yeah. Distribute income to whichever family member is in the lowest tax bracket. I like example, adult kid at Ernie earning nothing. Adult, sorry, adult kid at uni earning nothing, you could distribute 20 grand to them and they get taxed zero dollars. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um now it's been changed as of, oh sorry, well, it will be changed as of the 1st of July 2028 to a 30% minimum tax will apply to distributors, to distributions from discretionary trusts. Meaning no matter what now, you're gonna get taxed at 30%. Yeah. Minimum. Yeah. Minimum. That's wild.

George 31:57

Yeah. And and I would say the vast majority of small business owners in this country are set up like that. This is uh you reckon? I think so. I think a lot would be. Yeah, I think I think a lot would be, yes. More than not. Oh, that's a big call. You reckon? Small business owners, I'm not saying it, I'm saying cafe on the corner, a lot of tradies, you know. I reckon most of them have no idea. I don't know. That's if they've had some accounting advice, I reckon they would have probably been set up like that initially. Yeah. Especially if the missus is at home not working, you know, that sort of stuff, going, oh, you know, we'll set it up as a trust so that your missus is at home looking after the kids.

Robby 32:38

That's another, yeah, they they can pay her this amount of dollars.

George 32:40

That's right. So this is what I think. It's like we can get rid of it.

Robby 32:42

We can wipe out 20k here tax-free. We can wipe out 20k there tax-free. We can pay your kids tax-free. It's like, or like, you know, we can spend $45,000 and she'll only get taxed whatever the 22% or whatever it is.

George 32:55

Yeah, yeah. Um so again, getting their hands on your money. Getting your hand their hands on your money, once again. So, just real quick. That's another thing. We need some sound effects. We need some sound effects on it. We got we got it on the board. We should get the board.

Robby 33:11

We need um DJ Sell on the on the decks. Within arm's reach, you know, so we can just um yeah, so that's gonna be changed. So now people are gonna get taxed. If you have a a trust structure in your business, uh, you are gonna get taxed. This is projected to raise four and a half billion dollars. Yeah.

George 33:31

So this is what I mean. They're making money, they they are projecting to raise money from this house. Good thing for you again. Like you here's my budget. We're gonna fuck you over again for everyone that has a trust in place. Yeah. Because we're gonna make this much money. How good's that?

Robby 33:45

So there's a there's supposedly a three-year rollover relief window as of the first of July 2027. Meaning?

George 33:53

Um you got three years to get your shit together?

Robby 33:56

That's a really good question. Yeah. So, yeah, it's it sounds like uh to help small businesses restructure away from trusts if they want to. Yeah. So if you're like, hey, this isn't gonna work for me. Yeah, but then what's the alternative?

George 34:08

So this is where you probably need to speak to your accountant or financial advisor.

Robby 34:13

Yeah. Um it's it's I I can't help but feel like like, oh, like you you guys are doing it so that we can't hide. Not in the sense of people trying to hide. It's it's like taxes.

George 34:32

They're they're trying to remove loopholes where people minimize their tax. Yes. Yeah, they're saying, no, no, you can't minimize your tax anymore from this point on. This is how this is what's gonna happen. If we just make it one flat fee everywhere, no one can hide. Yep. So that's another massive thumbs down for me.

Robby 34:50

Yeah, I I think those first three are like, there's no they're the like big three where you're like, hey, like now we're let's put a whole bunch of little ones on top that are kind of positive to make you feel better about. No, yeah, exactly. I think it's the apart from the um it's a shit sandwich. Apart from reducing the competition on established property, I can't see any positive. Like, and I don't even know if that's gonna work. No, that's the thing. I don't think it will. I don't think it will. They they they but it's definitely you packaged it well. Like in the sense of, okay, like that's that's a pretty good. I can understand that a lot of people think they can't get into the property market. And I can also understand that this positions you in a better light for those people. But I'll tell you what, this budget really tells us they don't give a fuck about the people actually making moves. Oh, without doubt. They don't care about business owners, dude.

George 35:47

Without a doubt.

Robby 35:48

They do not care about business owners.

George 35:49

They're like, we're gonna help, they've made it very difficult for people to succeed. Yeah, it's it's yeah, it's but that's what they want, okay? Because if and like if they keep everyone at that level, then everyone's easy to to control. Okay. So let's just say, well, of course they want more people to get into the property market. Because when person when a young person goes out and buys a house, what do they have? What do they have when they buy a house? A loan. Yeah. All right. And now I want to control you and your and your loan. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna increase the um I'm gonna increase interest rates.

Robby 36:30

Yeah.

George 36:31

All right, because I want you to spend less. Or I'm gonna decrease interest rates because I want you to go out and spend more. So they are in control when they have that. That's why they want more people to get into the property market, more young people, more young people, and then they'll have more control. Then you're talking about the these business owners. We don't want you to be ultra successful. We don't want you to make a fuckload of money. Because if you make a fuckload of money, you're gonna park in every single disabled zone because you didn't give a shit if you get a fine for it. You're going to, you're not, we're gonna raise, we're gonna raise interest rates. You don't care. You already own five properties outright. You're gonna go buy a new car. You don't care if you rate they raise interest rates, you're gonna go buy that car, you're gonna go on that holiday, you're gonna do all these things. So you're in you're less likely to be controlled when you have a level of wealth and success behind you. Whereas when you're in that lower to middle class bracket, we control you. You're our little bitch. There's nothing you can do. Do you think it is a very pessimistic way to look at it? It is, yeah. All right. And I I try not to be that and try be victim, I and I think we said it the other day, like, don't, it's hard. Yes, don't be a victim to it. Go out and make more. You're gonna get taxed 30%. Well, go out and buy 43,000 fucking properties, then it doesn't matter. It's like Portelli the other day. He comes out, he goes, I paid a hundred million dollars in fucking tax last year. He goes, You can pay for the fucking police to monitor my people coming into the servo. Like, go for because I've got traffic management, because you go sort out your police if you want to pay for them. I've already paid my bit. Go out and make more. So, yeah, it's not being a victim to it, but I think again, from what I see with this budget, the older I get, the more interest I see in politics, I get in politics. That's the perception that I have.

Robby 38:15

Yeah, but I've always had um like I I I don't think they are making it. I I don't think they're helping, that's for sure. Yeah, but I don't think I don't think we should be dependent on help. That's the first thing. And then the other thing is I genuinely I always I've always had this pushback. Like, you know, uh, you know the people who like think the government's trying to kill us? It's like why would they try and kill you? If you know what you know what's the best thing for any of those people to do? Go run a company. No, go run a company. Man, I'm gonna go.

George 38:53

So fucking quickly that you don't want dumb people. Oh my god. Oh my god. Like I've been saying this for the longest time. The next prime minister, premier, they've just got to be some business tycoon. Someone that's gone there and done some sick shit, that knows their stuff, that knows what it's like to put their money on the line, that understands budgets, not just putting shit there to tax people or do something to so they look good on their balance sheet, but someone that understands it. And I think that's where my Malcolm Turnbull was quite, I thought he was quite good when he came in. Because he was a successful business owner before he got into the polit politics side of things. And then I don't can't remember why the wheels fell off or got kicked out, whatever it was. But there was an element of things that he was doing where I was like, okay, that's a good idea. Well done. And I think that's what we need here too. Do you think you were green to it? Sorry? Do you think you were quite green? Back then? Yeah. Yeah, potentially. I probably didn't pay as much attention to it.

Robby 39:49

Yeah. Um yeah, so so so real, like three uh really big changes. One, uh negative gearing off the market for established properties, effective immediately. Number two, capital gains. Uh when's that coming to effect? Discount. I'm pretty sure that's immediately due. Was it?

George 40:08

Yeah, there you go.

Robby 40:09

Or oh wait, hold on, hold on. Sorry, it might be from 1st of July. So the negative gearing is immediate. The capital gains. 50% capital gains discount gone. Uh so from the 1st of July 2027. That's like so you're on the market now. Like this is being recorded on the 14th of May. This budget was released on the 12th of May. Dude, if you are significantly depending on the 50% discount, let's just say you've got 10 properties, yeah, right? And you've had them banked up. You now have six weeks to sell to start to offload, that's that's not very nice. Like that, you you there's some people that would be in a panic. And then what happens? What happens agents that should be knocking on doors right now? What happens when um that happens though? We see an influx of properties come to the market. Yeah, and then what happens? Yeah, but what happens when there's an influx of properties? Yeah, prices tank. Do you know what I mean? That's not gonna help us get to where we want to go. Yeah, um, yeah, so that's effective in six weeks, and then the last one is the trust uh trust distribution tax, which has completely changed. Uh all right, change

Small Business Write-Offs And Loss Rules

Robby 41:33

number four. $20,000 instant asset write-off made permanent. So you buy something, yeah, or maybe something not as significant, maybe like a some gear for your thing, and it's like $15,000, yeah, $15,000 set of tools. You can write that off instantly in the first year and claim those deductions. Yeah.

George 41:53

Yeah. It's been there for a while. Hey? It's been there for a while though, hasn't it? The $20,000 thing. Yeah, the write-off, instant write-off. They're saying they're making it permanent now.

Robby 42:01

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're making it permanent now. So the hesitation about whether you could do it was always year on year.

George 42:06

Yeah.

Robby 42:06

Uh, and now it's become a permanent uh thing.

George 42:10

Um but again, probably doesn't help everyday Australians.

Robby 42:14

This is for business owners.

George 42:15

That's right. Yeah.

Robby 42:17

Um change number five, two-year loss carry back for business. Okay. How does that work? So if your business has a bad year, makes a tax loss, you can carry that loss over to the next year. So, like let's just say you lost 100 grand this year.

George 42:33

It affects your tax for the following year.

Robby 42:35

Yeah, so you can carry that loss over. So it's a two it's a two-year loss now.

George 42:39

Uh I think that's not a bad thing. So I'm gonna give thumbs up and thumbs up so far.

Robby 42:46

Being only being only being able to carry losses forward, what it's been changed to. So from the 25 years a permanent two-year loss carry back. Applies to companies turning over up to $1 billion per year. Yeah, that's not a bad thing.

George 42:59

No, I think those two are good things. No. Um give two thumbs up, three thumbs down so far. Yeah, but dude, the sizes of these thumbs up. That's right. They're like fucking fucking hardly, I'm it's not a motivated thumbs up. You know what I mean? I'm not running out and gonna go tell the boys downstairs.

Robby 43:16

Massive caveat, by the way. This is for PTY LTDs only, not soul traders. So if you're operating as a soul trader, it doesn't affect you. Doesn't apply to you, sorry. Uh change number six, one thousand dollar instant tax deduction with no receipts. That's that um no receipts. If I see you photocopying a receipt, dude, I just did it before.

George 43:38

Everything, every cent.

Robby 43:39

For a thousand dollars. Um, yeah, it's like I don't know what if you buy coffees.

George 43:45

Big fucking deal. Yeah, it's just this is like okay, I'll give you a thumbs up out of fucking like seriously, you just fucked everyone. It's like, oh, but here's a cookie. Just punched you in the face, but here's a cookie. That'll do. He's a lollipop. You'll be right.

PAYG Tax Cuts And The Fine Print

Robby 44:03

Change number seven, personal income tax cuts. So the brackets are changing, I believe.

George 44:07

Yeah.

Robby 44:08

So it's 2025-2026 um tax brackets. The free threshold is up to 18,200. What was it? That's what it is now. Oh, that's what it is now.

George 44:24

Yeah.

Robby 44:26

So the whole thing is like that. What they're changing, so they're cutting the 19% tax bracket to 16%. They're lifting the threshold where the 30% tax bracket starts from 120K to up to 135k. And they're cutting the 32.5% bracket down to 30. So the whole idea is that this should save an average earner about $1,400 a year in tax. So this is what I'm saying. They're structuring.

George 45:07

But that investment property you have there, we're going to tax you $250,000. But here's $1,400. What a day. What a guy.

Robby 45:15

Here's $1,400 on your regular P A Y G. But if you try and make money outside of that, we're going to make sure that we clip you as hard as we can. Yeah. Um yeah. And this is what I was saying to you about the case.

George 45:29

So I'm going to I'm going to give that. I'm going to give that a thumbs down. Oh, George is not happy. No, not from the perspective that it's just, I just think that's a bullshit thing to distract you from what they've actually done.

Robby 45:43

Yeah, so yeah. I don't know. What did I say, George? It's uh the the the 45% tax bucket used to be from 150, now it's 190. No, good. Um hopefully this information's accurate. If it's not, I apologize. Okay. Yeah. But I don't know. That's change number seven.

Fuel Excise Cut And Price Whiplash

Robby 46:09

Change number eight, fuel excise cut. This is a temporary change only, it's only effective until the 30th of June. Yep.

George 46:16

Can I say again? Big fucking deal. Yeah. Big fucking deal. Have you seen petrol prices? They're still expensive. They're not much petrol in there. I think it's 250 or some shit like that. I don't know. I'll put diesel, so I think it's about 250.

Robby 46:29

Is your Range River diesel?

George 46:31

Yeah.

Robby 46:32

Oh, really? Yeah. No fucking around. I didn't know that. I thought it was petrol. No. Um, yeah, well, so the the we for those listening, so you understand what we are referring to here. Uh the fuel excise is the tax government charges on every litre of petrol and diesel sold in Australia. So some of you may have realized with everything happening in Iran, obviously fuel prices went up through the roof. And then you may have seen there was a small drop back in that period. So what they did was they reduced that uh fuel excise. Right. So they reduced the amount they were charging on top. It says here they were charging 52.6 cents a litre, and I believe that dropped down to 26 cents a litre, something like that. Yeah, 20.6 cents per litre. Uh and then heavy vehicle road user was charged reduced to zero, so they weren't charging anything for heavy vehicles or anything further. And that's why we saw that kind of uh price drop to come down. But good chance, good chance, we see prices go back up uh again. Yeah, start of July.

George 47:39

Oh, yeah. Well, if nothing changes, and then now they're just gonna put it. But hang on, like you're going back on that, is Australia Hormoose open? Like I thought it was all open now and they're fucking all friends and shit. I don't know. But the I don't think so. So where's where yeah they may not be friends, but ships are passing through. So where is in a when is it going to go back down to under $2? Or whatever it needs to be. I don't know, where's that rate that it I can't even remember what it used to be at? I don't remember the old norm. This is the new norm. It's like they've already conditioned. Yeah, they've already conditioned us at the 250 mark. And it's like, oh wow, 220, what a fucking day. Let's go put petrol. Come on. There's another thumbs down.

Robby 48:18

Go fuck yourself. What's the next one? George is not happy with his budget. Uh change number nine.

Australian Standards Go Free

Robby 48:26

Yeah, change number eight was the fuel exercise. Change number nine, this is you're gonna do your favorite. Free access to Australian standards. Okay. I think that should have always been the case. So for everyone listening, Australian standards are official documents that set out how to build, install, manufacture, and test things safely and legally.

George 48:45

At a minute, that's the minimum standard that it should be achieved. Yeah. So you can do more, but that's the minimum standard. So you were previously charged. Ask me how many times I've purchased an Australian standard in the last 10 years, 10 and a half years of operating a business. How many? None. You? Not once. Why? Well, I'll give you a little story. Uh-oh. So when I was when I was at Multiplex. So you're not going to say, why are you happy about this? I'll tell you in a second. When I was at Multiplex, um, I left. This is a long time ago, this is like a lifetime ago. And they had access, they had a paid subscription to all the Australian standards. So when I left, I still had the login details for the online portal. And I went in there and downloaded all the relevant Australian standards I needed and saved them. Don't they um sometimes update them? Yeah. Yeah. But not haven't been updated in a long time, but yes, sometimes they'd update them. Now, aside from that, you can buy them. They're not that expensive, first of all. All right, you can go buy them for 20 bucks or whatever the fuck it's going to be, depending on the standard. Are you sure? Yeah, I don't think they're that much. So the information I've got here, this could be you might know better.

Robby 49:51

Maybe it's as I said, I haven't bought one in a very long time. It says currently you have to pay to access these standards. Yeah. Uh the cost can be up to, and I'm assuming this is on the top end, $1,600 per year.

George 50:04

Oh, so a subscription model. You can also buy them individually. Like, because I don't need every standard. I only need ones relevant to me.

Robby 50:12

Yeah, so they might have a, I don't know.

George 50:13

I don't know how it works, to be completely honest. Yeah. Here's the other thing that's um with that now. AI. Yeah, who's charging for this? It'll be an online portal somewhere. Like a government portal. It must be, yeah. They I thought it was a private company, to tell you the truth. I don't think it was a government portal, but maybe it is. But anyway, regardless, now I can go into chat, I can go into Claude, I can go into one of those platforms and say, what's the Australian standard for residential slabs and footings? And we'll say, it's this one. Cool. What's the standard? What depth do I need to go on a Class M site? And it goes, on a Class M site, you need to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Cool. Thanks. So I haven't needed to reference back to an Australian standard in very, very long time. The other thing is, generally speaking, when an engineer and an architect design something, they do it in accordance with the standards as well. So the documentation I already have is compliant with the Australian standards. I don't then need to go and check and go, oh, does this end has this engineer applied complied with this? So it's very rare that I actually need to go and reference back to that standard. So who would be the people who people generally people in construction, but Australian standards aren't just for construction. It's for, as I said, anything or a standard of doing a particular thing. So I'm sure there's probably standards for um automotive industry. There's probably standards for a whole range of things. Yeah. So that one does fuck all. Honestly, I have not looked at a standard. I haven't opened up a standard. I've got some downstairs. I'll go get this. I haven't given this is our most negative show that we've done, Doom and Gloom. The I've got standards downstairs that have not been opened for I might have opened them once or twice in the last 10 years. And honestly, the time I opened them was when I was going for my building license. Because I knew that because there were questions in there that I had to answer when I was doing my test. And honestly, since then, I can't remember the last time I opened it up. So I don't think that's a great, I don't think it's a bad thing, but I don't think you're changing anyone's life. Yeah, this is like it's the perfect uh AIs again, it's fucking great. Like I can go on to Claude and ask it, hey, what's this? I want you to reference the Australian standard, I want you to do this, I want you to do that, and it'll give me the answer. So not a big fucking deal. It's free, it's free, George. So's walking. Yes.

Robby 52:36

So I'm gonna say it's a thumbs down, George.

George 52:38

I'm just gonna say it's not happy. Um sad about that one, but again, you seem you seem pretty upset. I might go download it now after this podcast. It's free. I'm gonna send you one. Why not? Yes. Um next time you build a deck, I say, hey, just reference this next time you go build a deck. I've never built a deck. Did you build a pagola or some shit with your cousin? What you think I would build a come on. You told me, you were asking me questions. You said, What steel should I put here? And what never there is no proof. Oh, okay. Yes, I never built a deck at the same time.

Robby 53:07

What's the correct term? I was speaking to uh a couple of clients some time ago, and I was like, hey, um, you know, looking at building this pagola, and they're like, Do you have a permit? And I was like, Yes, of course I do.

George 53:19

I'm Lebanese, of course I do.

Robby 53:20

And they said, Um, are you gonna build a I can't remember the term, are you gonna build an unstructured property? Or something like that? Not unstructured, non-conform? No, it wasn't. Nah, yeah, it was a good fascinating term. I remember offending everyone. I was like, relax, guys. I'm not gonna do it. Relax. I didn't do it. You can't prove it. Yeah, I didn't see it. There's no proof. Didn't see anything. I didn't change the photos. I'm joking. Um anyway, moving on. Uh change number 10. So, so the the Australian standards, blah blah.

George 53:50

Yeah, I'm just gonna give that a thumbs down. I don't think that matters at all.

Apprenticeships And The Trades Shortage

Robby 53:53

Change number 10. Apprentice and skill, skilled trades package. George, this is this is right up your alley.

George 53:59

Yep, yep, yep, yep. So let's discuss this one. I actually don't know anything about this. Yeah, okay.

Robby 54:04

Okay, so this is a package of measures aimed at fixing the construction labor shortage.

George 54:12

Okay. This look. And what's the package? Because I've just employed an apprentice in the last four weeks. Fantastic.

Robby 54:18

So all right. So this is what it was. So what it was is a patchwork of apprentice incentive schemes, some of which were cut in early 2026 for trades outside construction. The HIA and others have been screaming about labor shortage for years. Australia is trying to hit 1.2 million new homes over five years, but doesn't have the workers to be able to do this. So, what it's been changed to one, new housing construction apprentice stream. Up to $10,000 per apprentice in financial support. Okay. Targeted at apprentices in construction trades aimed at increasing completion rates. We're currently a sub-50% across many trades. Uh, faster overseas trades recognition. So $85.2 million to speed up trade recognition Australia. So I know people who work in like um certifying, so you know, like trade recognition uh certification, where they're like, cool, like I used to be a carpenter in China. China, yeah. Yeah, it's like I want to be a carpenter here. It's like, okay, cool. Like if we can certify you to do so, show me your skills or your test. Yeah, I I don't know the exact how they do it, uh, but there seems to be like some sort of questioning they go through or some sort of test and they pass them and then they become a certified Australian trade or whatever it might be. Yes. Uh so $85 million thrown at that. Might be a good thing.

George 55:37

But in $800 billion, who gives a fuck? For them. That's what I mean. Yeah, $85 million to that. It's pocket change.

Robby 55:44

What's what's so it's $800 billion? It's like 0.001%.

George 55:50

It's pocket change. That's what I mean. Anyone else would be like, $85 million thrown at that? What's wrong with you? That's a lot of money. Yeah. It's like really just certify people. Okay, cool. Uh so what about the apprentice stuff? Can you go a bit more? Is there any more on that? Um so is it just a ten thousand dollar cap?

Robby 56:06

$10,000 per apprentice in financial support, targeted at apprentices in construction.

George 56:11

But is is that for the fashion of the business employing the carpenter, or is it for the carpenter? So who are they trying to entice? Let me find out for you right now, live on the show.

Robby 56:22

Uh but look, the whole Claude. The whole concept behind it is um is to get more people back in the industry.

George 56:30

They want it, they want to get more labor. They may not want it, they need it. So at the moment, I think for employing an apprentice, I get about $1,500 a quarter subsidized. Okay, so this is probably gonna be that, but potentially that that's a quarter, so that's every year $6K a year. 6k a year. At the moment. So is that gonna get to $10K a year? I'm not sure.

Robby 56:58

Okay. Oh the answer is pretty much this is according to Claude. The answer, the $10,000 goes to the apprentice, not the employer.

George 57:04

Yeah, well fucking.

Robby 57:05

There's also a separate $5,000 payment for the employer.

George 57:08

Yeah. So you still get uh that's what I that's what I mean. There is a so pretty much what I get from the government pays for his school fees. That's what it subsidizes. So I still don't get that in my pocket. I just pay for his school fees, like his TAFE fees, trade school. Yeah. Well, there you go. So yeah, and there's a thing, right? Employee they need to encourage people to get employed as well. So it's not just the apprentice himself. Yeah, and there's I think look, I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm gonna give that I'm gonna give that a thumbs up. It's not a negative thing. No, that's right. I'm gonna give that a thumbs up because I do think we need more apprentices. And if they can put that 10k, say to what they should do is this, not give them 10k because that they're gonna go piss that off off up against the wall. Go, here's a $10,000 tool allowance. You know what I think the issue go and buy $10,000 of tools for your business. Like that's all you it's a bunnings voucher. You can't do anything else other than get tools with it.

Robby 58:05

Do you think do you think there is a um issue with how apprentices are treated?

George 58:11

No, I don't. I think that's a a perception, like an old school perception, from the perspective of oh, the apprentice is just there to throw hammers at and yell at, and they're the bottom feeder. I don't think that at all. No.

Robby 58:24

As in, so you don't think that happens? Or you don't I'm sure that happens, but it happens in every business.

George 58:29

Yeah, so you don't think there's an issue with that? I don't think so, no. Do you think they shouldn't make that any better? I'm not saying they shouldn't make it better. I just don't think it's an issue. I don't think most employees are saying that I don't think people are made, I don't think people are employing apprentices so they can have a slave labor there.

Robby 58:44

Nah but you employ an apprentice. You don't think they factor in okay, here's a great better way to put it. If an apprentice charges you had to pay double what you had to pay for an apprentice, would you still employ apprentices? But do what?

George 58:57

Because they're not skilled enough to do the job of a fully qualified.

Robby 59:00

Do you think people I have to train them? Yeah, so do you think people look at employing apprentices and say, I would rather pay someone less um that I can get to do like you know what I mean? You don't think that that there is that stigma? Are you saying from the employees uh employer's point of view? Well, just in general, dude. Like, yes, if you're if you're from that question specifically is from the employer's point of view because they're the one that hired them.

George 59:22

Yeah, yeah. Well ask me, like, let's let's break this down because I've just employed someone. So you're saying to me now So you you don't you don't think there is a negative stigma. So I I've I've got the negative stigma as the employer.

Robby 59:37

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Of of not you don't have the negative stigma of the employer. You as the employer, you might look at having an apprentice on board and saying, like, yes, this person is cheap labor. Yep. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, we'll teach them stuff along the way, of course. Yeah. Um, but also like a lot of apprentices do get treated like shit.

George 59:58

I'm sure there's people out there that do it, that. But I don't like I see they're an employee. Why would I treat one employee lesser than another employee? Do you think there are things still doing? Yeah, I know, I know, I know. But I I don't think most business owners are not out there to go, I'm gonna treat this person like shit because he's just a rookie. No, no, no.

Robby 1:00:18

It's like a um it's almost like how do I explain this?

George 1:00:22

Like a um I think I know what you're saying, like a right of part passage. So you have to do the shit to get like ace. I think the fucking flaws and shut your mouth and absolutely. Huh? Okay, then I'll change my point of view. Yes. I think you have to because construction isn't an easy space. Yeah. So you need to learn how to do some of the shit jobs because it does happen. It happens. You've got to fucking sometimes you've got to roll up your sleeves. Yeah, but do you think they should be treated like shit? No, I didn't say that. Yeah. No, no, I don't think they should. And I don't think they I think the vast majority of apprentices are not. But is there an expectation of them that they need to put in a hard day's work? They need to do the the mundane tasks. And this is what I say to my my apprentices. Yeah, but mundane tasks is not being treated like shit. No, that's what I mean. I'm not, I'm 100%. I do not I don't condone that. And I don't think anyone should be treating apprentices like that. But do you think it happens? Of course. It happens in any industry. Employees get treated like shit. Um, fucking a florist will treat a per uh an employee like shit.

Robby 1:01:17

I don't think it's specific to you don't think there's anything specific about apprentices? You think apprentices would the same thing?

George 1:01:24

Uh that's how I try to see it. But yes, you would, I'm sure there are people out there that do see. I reckon 100% of it. I do say I mean you did your mechanic mechanical apprenticeship. Yeah. So you would be uh you would have probably received that. Did you go, hey, go change the fucking oil? No gloves for you today. You know, like did you cop that? I don't know if it was like that at Mercedes.

Robby 1:01:43

In the in the uh automotive trade, it was more like um they would send you to spare parts and go ask you to go ask, go, can you go get a long wait from parts? A long weight. So you would go and ask for a long wait, and then the guy at parts would look at you and say, All right, just one sec. Oh, good. And then you'd be there before you. Yeah, yeah. You're thinking, What's this long wait? Yeah, like why the fuck are they hurry up?

George 1:02:05

Yeah, and you didn't have phones back then.

Robby 1:02:06

Yeah, or like go, you know, go give me a left-handed screwdriver. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they all laugh at you. That's right. Or they take your hat.

George 1:02:12

Oh, that's funny though. Yeah, you're just left-handed screwdriver. Yeah, left-handed hammer. Yeah, give me a left-handed hammer. Yeah. Um look, I uh but then again, learning. Oh, where's that left-handed screwdriver? I can't find it. Oh, look, I've just found this one. Is this one right? Oh fuck, man, you're useless. I'll take that. Okay, you see the I think that's a bit of banter as well, though.

Robby 1:02:32

You see those videos of like uh the one that went most viral was like the the have you seen the videos like the four cans, but one of them's a pipe coming up from the ground? Oh yeah, and they kick it. Yeah, and they go to kick it, and then they make the apprentice dude kick the pipe and he doesn't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he trips over. Send trips over. It's like stuff like that.

George 1:02:52

It's like, is this a problem? Or this is a bit of I think that's a bit of fun too, though. But is it fun if it's at the other person's expense and they're not laughing? Yeah, that's that's it's a serious thing. But going back, going back to the other stuff, like sweeping the floors, doing the shit jobs, that's a part of the process, and you need to be able to know. So this is what I told my guys. I said, you're gonna sweep floors. You're going to clean up, you're gonna jack ham, you're gonna use a demo saw, you're gonna jackhammer, you're gonna do build a retaining wall one day, you're gonna do a whole range of things. You're not gonna just do uh your your carpentry apprenticeship, you're gonna do a whole range of things for two reasons. One, you are getting skilled. You need to know what it's like to sweep a floor because one day you're gonna be in charge. One day you're gonna be a supervisor and you're gonna have a laborer or you're gonna have an apprentice. And if he takes four and a half hours to sweep one bedroom, you know he's fucking around because you've swept a whole house in one hour. So you understand and appreciate what it takes to do a particular task and a work through repetition. It's the whole wax on, wax off theory with Mr. Miyagi and karate kid. Right? He's there waxing the car, wax on, wax off. And then Mr. Miyagi comes up to him, he goes, Show me wax on, wax off. Then fucking he does his karate moves. That's what it's about. It's understanding the task, the repetition of it. Yes, there's days where it's shit. His Daniel LaRusso's elbow was hurting when he was waxing the cars, but then after that, he magically knew karate. And I think there's an element of that at the beginning of your apprenticeship, say the first, you know, whatever it's going to be. But in saying that, I think it's detrimental if an apprentice does that for four years. It's detrimental to their development and they won't become a good trades person. So as a business, you need to train them up because I want them to be a gun um carpenter, for example. Because if they're really good at their trade, when they're qualified and they're still working for me, I can rely on him and go away and say, hey, build this frame. I'll be back next week. And then I come back next week and I've got a perfect fucking frame. So that's how I see it. But would that exist? I'm sure it does. I'm sure there are apprentices out there that are treated poorly. I've I've heard of them before, I'm sure it definitely more so in the older apprentices. Like old school, when I say older, as in you did your apprenticeship 30 years ago, when you had a uh, you know, an old school carpenter say like literally swearing his head off at you and abusing you and calling you all these things and saying you're a fucking idiot. Yeah. And I'm sure that existed. And there might be an element of that around too. But as far as doing the shitty jobs, that's part of the process.

Robby 1:05:24

It's a yeah, I don't I don't think the shitty jobs is uh what's being referred to here. Yeah. I think it's more like the you know, maybe the the lack of training or the treating him like shit, or the, you know, I'll get an apprentice cheap labour, I'll use him until he's a third year and then I'll get rid of him. Yeah. Um because I can pay him X dollars or whatever it might be. Uh because the the the the whole point of the whole, you know, apprenticeship uh I don't know what you want to call it, program is To have skilled laborers in the future. It's kind of like some letters.

George 1:06:05

I wouldn't say labourers.

Robby 1:06:05

Sorry, sorry, sorry, so tradesmen. Sorry, not labourers. I apologize. That was the wrong word. Um skilled trades. Yeah. Skilled people in the future, right?

George 1:06:12

People who can't. Because they can do it in the future when I need to then go employ another carpenter to build a house. I want them there to that I can do. Someone who has a professional skill in a particular and I think now, if you're an apprentice and you're listening to this or you got apprentices, you are the future. I genuinely believe that. I think as an apprentice right now, if you can go out there and master your trade and become really good at your trade, you will make a bucket load of money. You're going to have life skills, but you're also going to have something of significant value to builders, but also to the industry. So I think you need to stick it out. You need to become obsessed with mastering your trade and becoming really good at your trade. And you will go very, very far and have a very successful career in construction. So you think there's a lack? Yeah, I do. I think there's a lack at the moment.

Robby 1:06:59

Um yeah, it'll be interesting to see if that makes any any changes. The thing with this as well is there's always a delayed point.

George 1:07:05

I think that's good, but I don't think it's I don't think people are looking at that and going, wow, 10 grand, I better let me get my apprenticeship. I don't think it's as it still needs a bit more. I think that needs more.

Robby 1:07:16

I don't think it's a money thing.

George 1:07:17

Yeah, I think that needs a bit more work to make it more enticing to encourage people to come into the industry.

Robby 1:07:22

All right. Uh so is that a thumbs up or a thumbs down?

George 1:07:25

I'll give it a thumbs up, but again, not highly motivated.

Robby 1:07:28

You like it. Uh chapter, oh sorry, chapter, change

Housing Supply Plan And Approval Delays

Robby 1:07:32

11. Um, housing supply and modernization package.

George 1:07:35

Okay. I don't know anything about this one.

Robby 1:07:37

So, what it is, a multi-billion dollar package aimed at getting more homes built faster and lowering the cost of building them. Okay. Australia is targeting 1.2 million new homes over five years under the National Housing Accord, and it's currently well behind.

George 1:07:53

Oh shit.

Robby 1:07:54

The package attacks the housing crisis on three fronts. Speed up, speed up approvals, fund new builds directly, and modernize how houses are built.

George 1:08:04

Okay.

Robby 1:08:06

So three big problems play plaguing the housing supply. Yeah. Uh approvals take over. Yes. So environmental planning and approvals for new developments take, you know, 18 months. They're fucked. Um bottlenecks at every level. Yep. Thanks for sharing your two cents. Yep. Uh builders uh couldn't access cheap finance, so they couldn't make a stack. Uh and Australia builds homes. Australia builds homes the slow, expensive way. We build almost executively exec exclusively stick by stick on site. When countries like Sweden and Japan have moved heavily to modular construction. Um factories and then truck the site. Right. So if you don't know what modular construction is, uh Australia Australian regulations have made modular building hard. So this is what they're changing it to. So $500 million to modernize environmental approvals, build a new technology-enabled approval system, cut approval times for housing developments significantly. Uh, this affects everything from greenfield subdivisions to medium density infill. $10 billion for 100,000 homes sold to first home buyers only. So the federal government co-invests with states and territories, the mix of a mix of grants and zero interest loans. Could be interesting. Uh, and homes sold below market value exclusively to first home buyers. So giving people an in to the market. Uh construction starts 26-27. This is direct supply injection. Government becomes a major builder/slash funder. Uh modular prefab housing support, and then uh migration settings tilted to construction trades. So permanent migration capped at 185,000, 70% reserved for skilled migrants. New points, new points, test prioritizers, constructions, and electrical trades. So the whole goal is like faster approvals, quicker builds, more people, more funding. Thoughts?

George 1:10:05

It sounds good. I think the approval the faster approvals is great. I hope it's not just limited to greenfield sites and medium density.

Robby 1:10:16

Why? What's the what's hoping for?

George 1:10:19

I hope if I want to go and do three townhouses, I don't have to be at council for three months. That's three months. Fucking three years. Yeah. Um that's that's a huge, again, speaking, I speak to a lot of developers because I build for them. I'm looking myself. One of the biggest hurdles when you're buying a site now, if I go buy 800 square meters in anywhere, everywhere, everywhere, Mulvern, and I want to put three out three townhouses on it. The runaround you have to go through to get those three townhouses built, uh design uh approved through council is a joke. It'll take 12, 24 months. And in that time, you've got holding costs of the existing property, which you can't negatively gear anymore, mind you. So you've got those holding costs, you've got a whole range of things working against you. I was in Adelaide, we discussed the other day, and they were saying five months to get planning approval. Five months. And I'm like, that's phenomenal. You can actually plan how you're going to build these things. You can have a solid plan knowing with confidence in five months you're going to have a permit, so you can actually start construction. You might have a three-month settlement on a property that you buy, or maybe you uh maybe you even negotiate a five-month settlement. And in that time you get your plans and permits, and then when you settle, you can start construction almost immediately. And that's the biggest problem here. We've got so much fucking red tape. Every neighbor gets their gets to put their two cents. Oh, I don't like the the design. Oh, there's going to be more parking in the street, oh, the overshadowing. Like, shut the fuck up. I think there should be design constraints in place because uh otherwise you'll get towers in a residential area, you'll get buildings that are which is the whole purpose of approval. They've there's already a res code, yeah. It's already standards and some, yeah, and some counts councils might have particular rules that you've got to abide by. Totally fine. What do they call that again? Well, there's res code, which is uh like a blanket rule for everywhere, but then other councils might have specific things that you can and can't do in their shire, which is again fine, but they should have those rules listed and say, cool, if it's over this many square meters, you need this much private um open space, you need this, you can build this close to a boundary, this is the offset for your first floor. And as long as you design within those parameters and it works and it stacks, like here's your permit. No, none of this bullshit. Oh, the neighbor can complain and take you to VCAT. None of this fucking, oh, the person down the street drove past your site and they don't want more people coming into the area. Like, none of that. None of that. If it complies with Rose Code, you're good to go. Permit in three months, let's fucking go. Then you watch how many fucking houses will get built. Yeah. Because if you can open it up, man, people will build. I'll fucking build. I had a development site in Strathmore years ago, and we got fucked over by two years, two whole years to get a planning permit. And then at the end of it, we're like, this doesn't stack anymore to build. Let's sell it. And we sold it with plans and permits. We went through all that pain and heartache and just discomfort. And you're like, was that worth it? Not at all. Like we didn't lose money, but if you look at it from the perspective of an investment strategy, period, yeah. Like I could have made, I could have invested that money somewhere else and made better money, more money. Like, what do you do?

Robby 1:13:35

Yeah.

George 1:13:36

So the the I guess the it's so if the I think if they can definitely speed up approvals, like that's a massive thing. I think that's really good. But I hope it's not just to the greenfield sites and the medium density sites because they're just targeting, they're just trying to get their quota. If they're I I see that as we're trying to build $1.2 million, 1.2, what was it, million homes? Yeah. Yeah. So the only way we're going to do that is by opening up the greenfield sites, opening up medium density, letting Metricon and all those guy volume builders in to build everything out there. But meanwhile, all the developers in the suburbs, nah, fuck them. They can wait three years to get a permit, or they can wait two years to get a permit.

Robby 1:14:13

Yeah. The the issue here is I think um, you know, allowing $500 million to modernize environmental approvals, building a new technology-enabled approval system. Like, that's fucking five years away.

George 1:14:25

Yeah.

Robby 1:14:26

Like, what are you gonna build up?

George 1:14:27

Yeah, like when are you when's it gonna be on the bomb website? Bureau of Meteorology? Uh 80 million. They spent 80 million on a fucking weather website. Is it a good website? It's the best website. You haven't been on it. Should check it out. You gotta go. I'll send you a link. I just ask Siri what the weather's gonna be. What a waste of money. Do you know what I mean? Like what who the fuck goes on their website on their phone? They download an app, there's the Weather Zone app or whatever you use, or you ask Siri, as you said. I ask Google sometimes when I'm at home. And I'm like, hey, what's weather today? And it's like, why would I need to go onto that website? It's fucking pointless. But anyway, and how long did that take? I don't know how long it took, but yeah, if you're putting this into place, it's probably not gonna be one of those things.

Robby 1:15:10

It's gonna be years on end, and then when it comes out, it's gonna be super clunky. Yeah, and it's gonna be super seeded.

George 1:15:15

Um, anyway, modular stuff. Look, there's been a few companies over the years that have tried the modular stuff in Australia and failed. So I think it's gonna take off, dude. Some people have really given it a fair nudge. There's another company, I think, in Brisbane I saw on the news the other day, they're trying to do some modular stuff now. Hey, look, if it works, great. It's gonna be very um cookie-cutter stuff, regardless. It's not gonna be real custom homes, high-end homes. It's gonna be this is what you get, you can get it in this pattern, this iteration, and that's what it is. But then again, affordability, yeah, it's volume. So on these greenfield sites where they go do their subdivision, that's probably the perfect type of home for it. Because theoretically, it should be costless to build, therefore, it should be passed on to the consumer.

Robby 1:16:04

I don't know. Yeah, well, eventually it will. Usually the competitors and blah blah blah.

George 1:16:08

Yeah, that's right. So there's there's I think that's a good thing. You're seeing now 3D printed homes. Have you seen that yet? Where they've got the machine that has the concrete that just goes all the way around. So I've been I've seen a few of I think there's a there's a mob in Melbourne that does it, there's a mob in Brisbane that does it. I'd be curious just to see what it's like. But I think at the moment, again, you're you're constrained with the design of the dwelling. It has to be this sort of a shape on this sort of a block.

Robby 1:16:33

So you you think uh this will become a thing of like, you know, a standard house will tank, but a custom built will soar?

George 1:16:40

I don't know if the custom build will soar, but it's not going to be, it's not encouraging those types of projects. It's this is they're trying to meet their quota. They want to turn around in five years and say, you see, we delivered on our $1.2 million homes. But there's a lot of homes there that aren't greenfield sites, that aren't medium density sites. Yeah. Your 30 and 40 homes. There's so you think this is not a good thing? No, I think it's a good thing. I I think construction is a main driver for the economy. It will still employ a bucket load of people. So I think that's a good thing. And I hope that trickles on into all the other suburbs too and all the other shires, because and I just think it needs to happen. I think the council have got way too much red tape when it comes to this sort of stuff, and they need to have some drastic changes there. I agree.

Robby 1:17:32

Um they're the 11, George. That's the 11. Cool. So I think of that 11 we had what, three or four thumbs up? Yeah, but that was they were like not amazing. Look, look, apart from the uh apart from the whole, like I think they were, you know, trying to soften the blow.

George 1:17:48

Yeah.

Robby 1:17:48

Apart from the whole uh this is trying to get people into the market, like giving people an opportunity to get into the market, I think which is which is again, I think they've fantastically positioned that. I don't know if they're doing it. I don't know if that's really the intention. Yeah, if it'll happen. Um yeah. And and and I think the grandfathering uh principles law, whatever they call it, I think that's good. Like I think, you know, if you are in there for negative gearing, you're not impacted. The capital gains tax thing is fucked. Removing the discount, that's wild. Because you just that's ruined people who might have been doing this for 20 years, ready to cash in in, you know, I'm gonna cash in in five years, I'm gonna retire, and now it's like all of a sudden your capital gains discount. Oh, that 50%? No, I read it. It's ours, it's ours. Dude, that's wild. Um But so before I move on to the next, I've got one more thing I want to talk to you about before we wrap this up.

Final Verdict And Who It Hurts

Robby 1:18:49

Do you give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down?

George 1:18:51

Overall thumbs down. Thumbs down. George is not happy. Not happy, gentlemen. Not happy. I think it's um I think it's not a great I don't think there's great things in there. I think it will bite them in the ass eventually, which is a good thing. Right? If this is their downfall. As in the Labour government. Yeah, I think this will bite them in the arse. I think they will people are sick of their lies, people are sick of um just how the country's run at the moment. I think it needs a change. I hope the change is for the better, whoever comes into play. Yeah, look, I think I think there's the element of like you know you will drive away people who are putting people in jobs and things like that. You just said it there. Like it's you're you are so right.

Robby 1:19:37

Someone's yes, like now if you have built this enormous amount of wealth for yourself or you you run companies and and you're having a positive, you know what? If you're a fucking business owner and you're you're having some level of positive impact on the you pay suppliers, you're you you know, there's an amount of money that flows through your business, that benefits the government. Again, they get a lot of tax through those, you know what I mean? And it's like those people are like the the backbone of the economy, and they're getting burnt the hardest here. That's right, that's right.

George 1:20:09

This is all beneficial to like nine to fivers. I know a guy whom I've connected with, and we do some business, but he is uh currently in China, just uh looking at some suppliers, but he's moving to Dubai very soon, like in the next you'll probably do six months there, six months here. He's moving his highly successful business in Melbourne to Dubai. Right? Why? What a country. He goes, mate, he goes, it's a beautiful place. He goes, my family's safe. He goes, we have a good time, everything's great. He's Greek as well, mind you. He's not not doesn't speak the language, doesn't speak the local language or anything like that. But he's gonna move his business and his operations over there where he could have been here, and he probably still will employ some people here, but he's not gonna have the level of operations. That are here. But why not? Why would you not do that? Why would you not do that? It's fucking it's a no-brainer. I'm me, I'm still in Australia. I don't have intention to leave, but we're looking at doing work interstate, taking money and business out of this state and taking it into another one. I'll employ tradies over there, I'll employ people over there. I might even open up an office over there if it gets big enough and go, well, why am I going to continue to do work in this state and give my state and this state all my money? I'm gonna go take it to another one. Yeah, but I know it's still the same country. Yeah, these are still things there. But these are things that would affect the state government, like a local uh the state government. So um, but yeah, but even from encouraging investors to come into this country, we said it, was it we did say it last week, last episode, about the UFC coming here. It's like, why are we gonna come here? Because we would come and do and do 50 cards here, but every time we get down there, we lose half of the purse to the government. We have to pay them this much money. Are we gonna lose the F1? Are we gonna lose the Australian Open? We're gonna lose the Olympics, we're gonna lose like all of these amazing events that make you know the country great because it's so poorly run. It's people aren't coming here to go and build multi-story towers anymore because they it's too hard, it takes too long, it's we don't make as much money. All these billionaire investors that would employ thousands upon thousands of people not coming into the country. So is do you need to change your your strategy to really encourage those people to be successful? They're the ones that go out there. You know, one side note, one thing I hate, and I haven't hit the threshold yet, but I might in the future. I will in the future. I know where you're gone. Yeah, tax for uh sorry, the um payroll tax. That that blows my mind that that tax exists. Because you employ so many people, because you go out there and create live livelihoods for X amount of people, we are gonna punish you by taxing you. That blows my mind that that taxes. I think it's a little bit higher now. I think they increased it. Did they? Yeah, I think they did it. Let's just say it's let's just say it's a hundred, it's 800. Whatever. Let's just say it's 800. So if I employ and I pay over a million dollars worth of wages or 800 uh grandes, the worst the worst part about that is when you're not you charge me money at taxes.

Robby 1:23:22

But so when you're at 750, like let's just say you're sub the thing, the next hire costs you five percent of the overall amount. Yeah does that make sense? Yeah, so it's like and then you're like, all right, well, next person that I'm gonna hire, not only do you have to pay your wage, your super, your tax, your everything, but now I've got to pay five percent on everything else. Yeah. Do you know what I would do? I'd be calling you. Me? Yeah.

George 1:23:45

Why? I'd say, hey, how do we get some of these? How do we get some of these AI guys in here?

Robby 1:23:50

What do you think? You think they're not gonna tax that eventually? Is that what you think? You mean like you have an AI employee? Do you have a piece of technology that's doing this work for you? You're using our electricity, George, and we're gonna tax you on you having how many agents do you have? You're okay, you're gonna pay, oh, that one, you're gonna pay 30% on that. I was gonna say something else there. Yeah, you're gonna pay 30%. That's gonna happen. You think that's not gonna happen?

George 1:24:13

Come on, Robbie. You're gonna flip, huh? I feel sick. Listen. I feel sick. Do you know what the worst part about that is? What? I'm right. You are 100% right. Yeah. Of course. I just I can't believe how are they taxing you on a person? I can't, I can't you don't own that person. What you just said. I can't. I'm fucking gonna go home and sit and just sit on the couch. I'm gonna sit outside in my backyard.

Robby 1:24:36

They're gonna be like, you have to pay tax on your on your agents. You now have a piece of artificial intelligence that's doing work for you and helping you get a chance to do it.

George 1:24:44

You could have been employing a person, Robbie. You could have been employing an Australian to do that. Oh no.

Robby 1:24:51

And everybody's gonna sit there like, yeah, fuck AI. They took my job. Yeah, tax them, tax them, all these people that fired me because the they uh they replaced me with an AI. Tax them. And then the whole the the public's gonna be all on board for it, and they're gonna say, there, we're gonna raise AI taxes, and then I'm gonna come in and say, there, no AI taxes. Anyway, listen.

What We Wanted Instead From Government

Robby 1:25:15

Oh my god, that's made me throw up.

George 1:25:17

We digress, but uh what would you have liked to have seen like what was honestly per selfishly? I would have liked to have seen um Okay, and answer hold on before you before you answer, answer this in two ways.

Robby 1:25:33

Answer it selfishly, and then tell me what you would have liked to have seen for the general public.

George 1:25:37

Selfishly, I would have liked to have seen more assistant, like business growth strategies in place. You know, people that can go out there, yeah, no, just to do stuff, give us whether it's like get rid of fucking payroll tax, get rid of that one first up. But no, just do things that would help encourage small businesses to grow because it's such a huge employer, it's such a huge driver of the economy, the small business owner. So I think they should have done more to help that person because that person can go out and hire more people, can grow their business, and I think that's what's gonna drive the economy. I would have liked to have seen that. Uh, I definitely would like to have seen with the construction stuff, just reducing red tape, helping, again, this is real selfish, but helping builders more so than helping consumers, I think they've got it backwards. I reckon everyone's focused on we're gonna do this to protect the consumer, we're gonna do this to protect the consumer, and so on and so forth from this, from this, from this.

Robby 1:26:36

I think they have to play a majority game. Yeah, they do, but they service the 1%.

George 1:26:40

It's not focused on the vote against it. Oh, of course, of course. But the funny thing is, like if you help the people that are actually delivering the jobs and they can deliver it easier, more efficiently, more competitively, that's only going to benefit the consumer. So this is where I think, and I'm not I'm not saying reduce compliance, I'm not saying make it cheaper. I'm just saying make it easier for us to be able to deliver projects which will bring costs down, make it competitive, and just get the thing moving and get it done. So I think selfishly that's there might probably two things. I would say uh as an economy, I reckon they need to do more to give back to people from the perspective of if we've got all these natural resources that we're not utilizing to their full potential, I think that has to change. I think all these big corp, uh these big companies that are coming in and taking our resources and not giving us fuck all for it. I think that has to flip completely. I think energy prices need to come down significantly from fuel, gas, electricity. That should have probably happened. I think they're probably too high. Um, and and not that they're not manageable, it's just again, give people proper wins and not introducing more taxes. Help people get help people make some money. Like help people win. I think if you can help more people win, then that's gonna encourage them to be able to go out and buy the house, buy the car, all that sort of stuff. At the moment, it's scarcity mentality, it's how much more of your money can we take, and how are we gonna benefit from this? And we have to make the tough decisions. I think they're an ab, I think they're cowards, I think they're a cop-out, and I've got very little respect. I would love to drill Anthony Albanese. Anthony, if you listen to this podcast, sorry, when you come across this episode, give us a holla. Jump on. Come and speak to two Aussie guys, two Aussie battlers. Tell you what, Anthony, convince me. My fucking heart rate just went up again. My heart rate. There you go, I'm pumped. Convince me to vote for you again. Are you concerned at all? That's twice in the same podcast. Got a strong heart. Went to the gym today. That's the same. I uh convince me. Anthony, come here, have a chat with us, convince me to vote for you. I'm not saying I hate you as an individual. I think you've made or your party is making some bad decisions. The problem with whenever you get a politician on camera or on anywhere, they give you the political answer. They don't give you the straight talk. I would love for someone to come here and just give a straight talk and go, look, I know this is what I've been challenged with. The reason I have to do this is this. I know you don't like it, but it's this. Or I don't know. The reason I can't change the resources is we've got standing contracts in place. And if I change it, it's actually going to be detrimental for this, this, this, and this, and then we're fucked. Then what? Then what do you want to do with your power? You're not going to even have power. So go at the moment, I've got to play the game, I've got to do this, then in five years' time we can renegotiate.

Robby 1:29:55

I think the big issue is they let a lot of people down. Like they lied.

George 1:30:00

Yeah, yeah. They blatantly lied to your face, and then um disappointment. But that's why I think it's detrimental to them, this budget. I don't think they they've won any votes, put it that way.

Robby 1:30:11

Odd.

George 1:30:12

I think they've lost votes.

Robby 1:30:13

The general consensus is like this is horrible. That's the general consensus. And I I've never- Which is odd too.

George 1:30:21

I think that's a good thing. Why would you knowingly put this out?

Robby 1:30:26

They have to.

George 1:30:27

I know, but knowingly put it out knowing it's going to be detrimental. Why wouldn't you have put better changes that go, oh, here's our budget. This is an amazing budget for the people. We got you, we got you covered. So this is Are they just trying to recoup all their costs? Like, is it that bad? But they have to do that. I know, but we've been to deficits every fucking year.

Robby 1:30:45

Yeah, but that's so there comes a point in time where uh that doesn't work anymore.

George 1:30:50

Yeah. It's I'm I'm surprised it's not there now. Like that's what I was saying. When does it stop? Does it if it does the next six years? Where are we? 26, the next four years, 2030, are we going to be a trillion? Yeah.

Robby 1:31:02

Yeah.

George 1:31:02

Okay.

Robby 1:31:02

So the rate we're going at, that's what I mean.

George 1:31:04

So then what? And then 2040? You're falling back 34 trillion a year. Yeah, but are we two trillion in 24? We've got a cap. And then are we three trillion? There's a cap. And then are we 10 trillion? Like at what point do you go, hey, we kind of fucked up. I'll tell you, I read it here.

Debt Ceiling Risk And Wrap Up

Robby 1:31:19

Look, this is this is how much research I did, George. There is a cap because there's a cap on how much money they can borrow. So right now they borrow that 900 billion, right? Yeah, the treasurer has a legislated max of 1.2 trillion dollars. So if this keeps going down the same path, I believe, from my understanding here, and I'm I'm far from qualified to talk about this, but uh the country could be in trouble. We're not far off it then. Yeah, it's it's so it's about 300 billion, yeah, which is a significant amount of money. It's like it's probably 10 years of deficits. But 10 years is 10 years.

George 1:31:57

But we're not getting enough still. I don't, yeah, we're not getting enough surpluses to counter to bring that figure down. Definitely not. And even when they are in a surplus, is it like, okay, does that then does that 3 billion that you made come off the 800? So now we're at 7, you know, 797. That's what I mean. Like I don't under I that's I mean again, I'm no expert, but this is I believe it does.

Robby 1:32:22

Yeah, yes.

George 1:32:23

So but then it's not significant, is it?

Robby 1:32:25

No.

George 1:32:26

If you're if you're if you're in deficit 30 billion each year, yeah, then you need to meet in 40 billion the year after as a surplus. Like you need to break even two years, yeah. That's it. So anyway, there's um a lot to unpack there, guys. It's uh interesting. Watch this space, I guess. What else are you gonna do? You're gonna probably get some advice, speak to your advisors, speak to an accountant. Yeah, I think maybe restructure how you're going about your stuff. There's definitely conversations that need to be had. And the sooner you have them, the better, because you'll be better prepared. Don't just let it slide. Who knows? Like they a lot of this stuff might get retracted, like we said, with um other countries. They might go backwards on it. The new party that comes into power might say, vote for us and we'll get we'll bring back capital gains tax to what it was, and we'll actually make it better. We won't, we'll make it 70%, who knows, or 60% instead of 50.

Robby 1:33:22

Yeah, I I think uh the two biggest ones that you need to action as soon as you can is the capital gains one because you know, if you've got a whole bunch of property and you've been holding on for years and you've got you know an excessive amount of capital that's grown growth, excessive, I don't know what the way I'm looking for the areas. Got big. Yeah, it got big in that period. And um you don't want to miss the window and then kind of get wiped. Uh, and then the other one is like, cool, like if you have, you know, family or anything or a trust structure where you're able to pay your significant other or your kids or anything like that and minimize tax, that's gonna go out the window. So you need to find a different way so you don't start paying unnecessarily 30% tax as a minimum. That's significant. Um cool, that's it. That's it.

George 1:34:11

I think uh good unpacking, good research, RC. I think that was great. Yeah, cheers to um good Claude. And no, but but hey, you learnt about the topic and we're able to have we were able to have an in-depth conversation about it too.

Robby 1:34:22

And I I think the other thing, so what I did as well is like, okay, cool, like what what else? Like what else could the government have done? And this was what Claude came up with. And it spoke about superannuation, and I think that could have been done there. Uh, it spoke about stamp duty.

George 1:34:40

Yeah, oh massive. Massive one.

Robby 1:34:42

Massive, massive one. Did you know 20% of uh Victoria's state revenue, tax revenue, comes from stamps?

George 1:34:49

Yeah, right. You know stamp duty what it was introduced for? I think I've told you it was pretty sure. Yeah, it was a war effort, it was a way to help fund the war. Yeah, but it it's this is how long ago it was. And you know the same way.

Robby 1:35:01

The same way your company becomes used to paying for stuff, your company becomes used to your country. Yeah, no, no, the comp yeah, the company becomes used to uh income.

George 1:35:10

Yeah.

Robby 1:35:11

So if they've had yeah, if if imagine losing 20% of your revenue overnight.

George 1:35:16

You know what I mean? Well, they'd have to try to find it from somewhere else. This is what this is what you need. You need some really smart minds to go. Well, maybe we go look at some other countries. Maybe you go to Dubai. Why are they uh why are they so wealthy? Why are their people so prosperous?

Robby 1:35:31

Natural resources.

George 1:35:32

But we've got heaps of natural resources. But we green. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Maybe we need to kill some greenies. There's some um insider jobs that need to happen. But this is what I mean. You've got to get some of the smartest minds in the world and start to restructure everything. Because I think it can be done. I think it can be turned around too.

Robby 1:35:54

Well, you heard it here first.

George 1:35:57

Anthony, hook us up, we'll have a chat.

Robby 1:36:02

That's it. We'll wait for the call. We'll see on the next episode. Yeah, special guest. All right, guys, thanks for listening. I hope you've enjoyed uh this episode. Yeah, I hope you got a bit out of it.

George 1:36:11

And if nothing, at least it's a discussion with your friends, with yourself. It's just things to think about because it's definitely going to affect you.

Robby 1:36:19

Yeah, it affects everyone.

George 1:36:20

No doubt. Awesome. Thanks, guys. All right, thanks everyone.