One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has erupted over Labor’s refusal to concede its reforms to the capital gains tax will place higher taxes on some Australian businesses.

The reforms will remove the existing 50 per cent CGT discount in favour of an inflation indexation model and apply to all asset classes, including investment properties, shares, and businesses.

A 30 per cent minimum tax rate will also apply.

On Monday, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek defended the Albanese government’s approach, saying misinformation had fuelled small business fears about the budget measures’ impacts.

<img src="https://cue.wanews.com.au/webservice/thumbnail/article/22330744" id="_7f861945-eb6f-4cc2-a07f-79457e1ba210" capiid="05240079c06e0e7de5457de742e42ba2" alt="" caption="One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has claimed Labor is ‘unable’" to explain its CGT changes. Picture: Sunrise">

“There are a whole range of carve outs … and what we’re doing is moving from a situation where the discount on capital gains tax is a flat 50 per cent to a discount that’s based on inflation, so there’s still a discount in there,” she told Seven’s Sunrise.

Ms Plibersek said there were a “lot of positives” about the changes that were being ignored by people online whom she claimed were preoccupied with “getting some attention”.

She would not concede the changes raised taxes, nor be drawn on a specific example of a small-business owner trying to sell their business.

But Mr Joyce subsequently told the same program the Labor MP was still unable to make a key concession about the reforms. “You will pay more tax. It’s very easy, you just let it come out of your mouth, it’s called the truth,” Mr Joyce said.

Asked about whether Labor would commit to reducing income tax, Ms Plibersek pointed to the government’s forthcoming instant $1000 tax deduction and July 1 tax cuts.

“An average worker will get a $2800 tax cut because of the changes that we’re making,” she said.

“That’s one of the reasons that we’re making changes to our tax system.

“Because people on wages and salaries who pay their tax every fortnight, they’ve been getting the raw end of the stick, compared with people who are making profits on shares and other assets.

“The wage and salary earners have been paying a larger share of the tax burden than they should.”

But Mr Joyce dismissed Ms Plibersek’s response, saying the real question was around whether Australians were “going to pay more or less tax”.

“The answer is not ‘I don’t know’. The answer is yes, they will,” he said.

But when host Nat Barr pushed back at his claims about the tax cuts, he protested: “It’s just not the truth, it’s crazy.”

Backlash to the CGT reform has included criticism from former Liberal politician Peter Costello who warned Labor’s changes would impose a “lifetime of taxes” on young people.

Mr Costello, who set up the existing 50 per cent discount regime in 1999, claimed the forthcoming changes would further entrench intergenerational inequity rather than level the playing field as the government has argued.

“Let us be clear, this is a new tax on investment – all investments. It is cynical marketing to suggest it is being done to help young people,” Mr Costello wrote in The Australian Financial Review.

“Make no mistake; the young will suffer under this more than the old.”

He insisted Labor’s reforms were based on “deception” and pointed to Anthony Albanese’s election promise, when the Prime Minister vowed not to touch tax and negative gearing settings should Labor retain government.

“The Prime Minister, by his own reckoning, ruled this out 50 times before the election,” Mr Costello wrote.

“To keep it a secret, it was drawn up furtively. The details couldn’t be aired or examined.

“The hidden operation meant ministers had no clear understanding of the implications.

“Now they find it hard to back down.”