Carrington Clarke

speculation that that would be changed, how it might affect business decisions, particularly amongst startups.

Do you want to start with a big picture and then take me through where you really zeroed in on the business changes?

Yeah, you're right.

I mean, there were so many leaks ahead of this budget.

We basically knew all the headline changes.

And yet I did find once I actually looked at it all, I was still shocked by how far the government was going, given the political risks involved.

And yes, the government is talking about this as being the most ambitious budget in a couple of decades.

But that is backed up by a lot of experts I spoke to, economists who'd been watching different budgets for a long period of time, said this is the government taking a big swing.

We'll see how it plays out when these changes are implemented.

There is a lot of political risk here, but they are making substantial changes.

Looking at what changes for business, and it does appear that the government was aware of the criticism of particularly start-ups, that any changes to the capital gains, tax discount,

that made it less attractive to invest in high growth stocks, you know, stocks or businesses that you're expecting will grow into the future and therefore you're trying to get that big capital gain at some point.

would make it less attractive.

It would make it harder for them to get capital into their businesses and make it harder for them to get the investors that they need.

They are still doing the changes.

The capital gains tax discount is changing.

But there are all these little gifts to the startup community out there, these incentives to try to offset, I guess, in part, but also to help Australia's startup scene to build big businesses of the future.

And there was a change, wasn't there, with loss carryback?

They have made the size of the company smaller that is eligible for this from what it was back under COVID.

Is that right?