Forty Australian business owners under 40 have penned an open letter to the prime minister, saying his tax reform is an "aspiration ambush".

The self-described "young business builders of Australia" from technology, artificial intelligence, retail and manufacturing sectors told Anthony Albanese that his budget has hit them the hardest.

"We work the hours. We carry the risk," the letter read. 

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"We do it because we believe in the business we are building, and because we have been told, repeatedly, that this spirit of having a crack is exactly what the country needs.

"Unfortunately, the budget your government just announced tells us a very different story."

The budget has decreased the generous capital gains tax (CGT) discount to 30 per cent, adjusted to a cost base indexation, grandfathered negative gearing and discretionary trusts as a way to support younger people to enter the housing market.

But business owners have been swept up in the changes, which the founders claim will affect every growing business in Australia.

Most of the signatories said they supported the CGT changes on the sale of residential investment properties but drew a line at shares.

"The changes to the CGT discount on shares will do nothing to make houses more affordable; all they will achieve is to suck the ambition, drive and hope out of the hearts of young business builders nationwide," the letter reads.

"Surely that can't be the plan?"

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The letter was signed by 40 business owners, including those from workout supplement company Pillar Performance, link-in-bio tool Linktree and AI-led menu and ordering platform me&u.

"Prime Minister, we respectfully look forward to your reply," they concluded in the letter. 

Albanese is being mocked by small business owners around the country who have taken to social media to post AI-generated photos depicting the prime minister as their new business partner, claiming he will be taking 47 per cent of their earnings when they sell their company.

The budget's tax reform has not yet passed parliament. The Coalition have vowed to fight them but the Greens are undecided.

Albanese and senior members of his cabinet are currently on a nationwide campaign to spruik the budget and explain the changes. 

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They have reiterated that there is a one-year grace period before the CGT changes come into effect, consultation with the start-up sector and support for businesses who want to restructure their discretionary trust to a fixed trust.

Businesses with existing concessions will not be affected by the changes.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters yesterday he chose to include shares in the CGT changes so he does not "introduce new distortions into the system".

"Those distortions which were introduced by Howard and Costello made a negative impact on housing in particular, and we don't want to replace one set of distortions with another set of distortions," he said.

"This is about a fairer, more neutral treatment of capital gains."

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New research released today has revealed the university degrees giving fresh Australian graduates the best pathway towards earning six-figure salaries.

The Social Research Centre's Graduate Outcomes Survey for 2025 looked at the employment outcomes for about 50,000 undergraduates.

Their median salary was $91,000, an increase of 31 per cent from 2022.

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But graduates in fields such as medicine, software engineering, dentistry and civil engineering were earning a six-figure salary ahead of others.

Figures comparing what they earned about four months after graduating with what they took home three years later showed their pay rose by $30,000 or more.

Graduates in dentistry earned $89.700 upon leaving university, but three years later their salary swelled to almost $129,000.

From a starting salary of $80,00, graduates in medicine were being paid $115,000 after three years.

Engineers also recorded significant wage increases, starting at $71,000 soon after graduation, before their salary rises to $103,000.

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Graduates in law and computing and information systems were also paid $100,000 within three years of graduation.

Researchers say the results reflect a strong demand for higher education qualifications in Australia's tight jobs market.

The survey also found employment outcomes in the short-term for were stronger for graduates from more vocational study areas, but this gap narrowed after three years.

For example, more than 90 per cent of undergraduates from areas such as rehabilitation, pharmacy, and teacher education were employed full-time in managerial or professional jobs shortly after they finished their course.

By contrast, 54 per cent of full-time employed undergraduates from law and paralegal studies were working in managerial or professional jobs in the short-term – but this increased to 79 per cent after three years.

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Coles has launched a partnership with Crime Stoppers Victoria in a bid to stop violence against supermarket workers.

It comes as CCTV footage reveals shocking incidents of assault and violence against workers, with one clip showing a worker being thrown to the ground and dragged by a shopper.

The attack only stopped once bystanders intervened.

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Coles' state general manager Chris McKellar said the shocking footage is a sad reality of the experiences workers face.

"The incidents our workers face in store are awful," he said. 

"Anything from spitting, to hitting, petty crime we see on a day-to-day basis."

New stats reveal retail theft is climbing in Victoria, rising by 6.1 per cent in the last year, with over 41,000 incidents recorded.

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The partnership between the supermarket giant and the state's crime watchdog will educate Victorians on gift card scams, organised retail crime, and how to de-escalate harmful behaviour.

It is designed to raise awareness of the risk retail workers face.

"[It's] important to remember retail workers are mums and dads, bros and sisters, aunts and uncles," McKellar said.

"They deserve the right to get out of bed each morning, go to work and be safe."

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