Gender equity groups pen joint letter to Govt urging CGT overhaul

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist

24 April 2026

A coalition of gender equity groups have penned a letter to Minister for Women and Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher, ahead of the Federal Budget, urging for “meaningful reform” to the capital gains tax (CGT) discount.

The letter, penned by Fair Agenda, Working with Women Alliance, Australian Women’s Health Alliance, Women’s Electoral Lobby, Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance and others, raised concerns that the current 50% discount is both worsening the housing crisis and broadening the gender wealth gap.

The letter noted that the CGT discount has invited more investors into the property market and pushed others further “to the margins of an already unaffordable housing market”, with women – particularly single mothers, older women and those escaping domestic and family violence – at a severe disadvantage.

The groups said the CGT discount not only “distorts the costs of housing” but also “reduces the tax pool available to resource critical public services – like public housing, healthcare, education, and domestic and sexual violence services”.

“Right now this tax rule means our government funnels billions of dollars of potential revenue to the already wealthy – while also making the housing crisis worse,” Renee Carr, Executive Director at Fair Agenda, said.

“It’s an outrageous and unfair policy in and of itself – but particularly during a national crisis of violence against women – when women can’t access safe housing; or life-saving services.

“Women deserve more than tinkering around the edges of a bad policy. We need the Albanese Government to end unfair rules, and deliver a fairer system where everyone contributes fairly, and we can access public services when we need them.”

The letter also highlighted how the CGT discount perpetuates existing inequalities that are compounded by other social issues, such as the gender pay gap, women being more likely to work part-time, the gender superannuation gap, and women being more likely to be responsible for unpaid care.

The groups noted in their letter to Minister Gallagher that plans to “water down” the CGT discount amount from 50 per cent to 33 per cent would not effectively “correct the perverse incentives this rule has created in our housing system” or “meaningfully improve housing affordability or outcomes for women”.

They also aired their concerns that “grandfathering arrangements risk locking in the distorted benefits of this unfair rule, and entrenching the disadvantage it has caused to women”.

“This unfair rule means our system effectively subsidises property investors and encourages them to bid against people trying to find a home – making it harder to find secure and affordable housing, especially for women,” Gemma Killen, Executive Director at Working with Women Alliance, said.

“Women should not have to choose between homelessness and violence so that the Government can maintain a costly and unfair tax concession that primarily benefits wealthy men.”