Carrington Clarke

but both of us were deprived of our communication with the outside world for an extended period.

Mine was with the political journalists of the ABC locked down here in Parliament House.

We had visits from the Treasurer.

We had the Prime Minister stopped by, the Housing Minister.

What was it like for you and what was the whole experience of trying to figure out exactly what this budget was going to do to the Australian economy and to our taxation system?

Yeah, there was some pleasure being offline.

We were able to watch television from within the lockup.

So it was an odd experience of having one way communication.

We weren't able to look anything up online.

Obviously, there was market sensitive information within the documents as we work through them.

There was also some trading going on among journalists between snacks for fruit, drinks.

It was a fascinating process of economic management within the team.

But also very helpful, I think, as people were trying to make sense of exactly what the documents were saying to make sure we're all on the same page.

Because this is quite complicated, isn't it?

Yesterday when I spoke to Patricia Carvellis, when we actually still were in the lockup period just before we were able to communicate with the outside world, obviously we went to the headline, which was about the major changes to the taxation arrangements when it comes to property.

This is negative gearing, capital gains tax discount.

But also, of course, the trust changes were also fascinating.

That was kind of the headline stuff, which I'm interested in your view on.

But I'm also really fascinated about the changes that the government is making to taxation arrangements for businesses.

And there was a lot of commentary around how these changes, particularly the capital gains tax discount,