{"id":719996,"date":"2026-06-07T00:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T00:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719996\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T00:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T00:19:30","slug":"capital-gains-tax-christopher-luxon-labels-potential-new-zealand-levy-a-wrecking-ball-for-the-economy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719996\/","title":{"rendered":"Capital gains tax: Christopher Luxon labels potential New Zealand levy a ‘wrecking ball’ for the economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New Zealand\u2019s Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has described the prospect of introducing a capital gains tax as a \u201cwrecking ball\u201d for his country\u2019s economy, firmly ruling out the move as a light-hearted trans-Tasman exchange highlighted a deeper policy divide with Australia.<\/p>\n

His comments followed a pitch last month from New Zealand Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who urged Australians considering starting or growing a business to look across the Tasman<\/a>, citing New Zealand\u2019s lack of a capital gains tax and its \u201cvery pro-growth, anti-red tape\u201d settings.<\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Anthony Albanese and Kiwi counterpart Christopher Luxon traded barbs in Noosa.Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Saturday, speaking alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Noosa, Luxon sought to downplay any suggestion of a critique of Canberra, insisting Willis\u2019 remarks were aimed squarely at New Zealand\u2019s domestic debate rather than Australia\u2019s policy settings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the New Zealand domestic context, there\u2019s been a long-running debate now for over 10 years about the merits of introducing a CGT or not,\u201d Luxon said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t ever introduced one in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the comments were not directed at Australia, but reflected the internal New Zealand political debate over whether a capital gains tax should ever be adopted.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHer comments were really in the context of that debate domestically, rather than … comments about the domestic settings of the CGT here in Australia. That\u2019s up for you guys in your different economic context to obviously make your decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange came as the Albanese government attempts to reshape its treatment of capital gains tax concessions, with changes announced in the federal budget<\/a> to take effect from July next year.<\/p>\n

The reforms, which have drawn sharp criticism from small business and political opponents, will replace the long-standing 50 per cent discount on capital gains tax from assets held for more than a year with an inflation-indexed approach and a minimum 30 per cent effective tax rate on gains.<\/p>\n

The issue is also increasingly shaping as a fault line in New Zealand politics ahead of the November 7 election, with the opposition NZ Labour Party continuing to advocate for a broader capital gains tax, while Luxon\u2019s centre-right coalition has ruled out introducing one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t think that\u2019s appropriate for New Zealand, and we feel pretty strongly about it,\u201d Luxon said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a recovery underway, and we just think of CGT being introduced to New Zealand now would be a wrecking ball for our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChristopherChristopher Luxon says introducing capital gains tax would be a \u201cwrecking ball\u201d for New Zealand economy.Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum also convened a business dialogue alongside the prime ministerial meeting, with industry leaders outlining how firms were responding to geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain pressures and rapid technological change across an increasingly integrated trans-Tasman economy.<\/p>\n

Albanese leaned into familiar trans-Tasman humour when asked about the exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat next? The Wahs (NRL club NZ Warriors) signing another Jackson Ford?\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we have a relationship which is often a bit tongue-in-cheek, that\u2019s the truth of the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted the depth of people-to-people ties across the Tasman, pointing out that about 638,000 New Zealanders lived in Australia, while around 90,000 citizens had gone the other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOccasionally, there\u2019s a bit of cheekiness to the relationship. Long may that continue,\u201d Albanese said, before offering to fast-track any citizenship requests from New Zealand rugby All Blacks stars to play for the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

Luxon agreed the tone reflected long-running good humour between the two countries.<\/p>\n

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\"RobRob Harris<\/a> is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-719996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}