Nassim Khadem

They're just feeling the pressure of not being able to afford to pay for higher grocery prices, higher fuel prices, higher mortgage repayments.

People are really feeling that.

And so sometimes I kind of watch what we do, what we report on, and then the world outside.

And

We can't detach that there are a lot of people feeling enormous price pressures at the moment and this slowing rate of growth in the numbers.

They're not feeling that.

They're just feeling like, I can't keep up with my repayments.

I can't keep up with paying for groceries.

Exactly.

And when we do stories and we do go out and interview people, they also talk about, particularly businesses, they're seeing their customers pull back on spending.

They're already seeing fewer customers come in and they can't hike their prices because their customers are already saying, I can't drive far away to come and get my hair cut anymore, so I'm going to come in less often.

Businesses are also hurting from this.

It's not just consumers, but everyone's hurting from these price pressures.

Yes, so the government hadn't really expected, they obviously expected a political fight in relation to their capital gains tax announcement, but I don't think they expected so many start-ups and small businesses to come out and do memes on social media attacking them.

And, you know, these are young, savvy business founders that have, you know, millions of, collectively, millions of followers on various platforms like Instagram, etc.,

So it has been a headache for the government in terms of trying to sell its CGT policy.

So today, as we're talking, the government's actually considering whether they carve out startups or small businesses.

One option that's being explored, according to media reports, is a widening of existing exemptions from the capital gains tax.

They also might expand the number of Australians who are exempt from CGT.

So currently businesses with a turnover of up to $2 million and assets of up to $6 million don't need to pay any CGT if the owner is over 55 and had held their business for at least 15 years.