losses could carried forward
luciferase,
Losses should be copped like all wage earners have to ! Either we all lose or no-one loses, being selective as to who has a loss & who doesn't is crap !

Not sure about PAYE taxpayers copping losses. There are work-related tax deductions that are generally less than income from work, and there's a tax-free threshold.

In business carried on without a company structure, as mum and dad investors do, Labor's proposal was to share in your profits but if you make a running loss in a tax year you're on your own, no suggestion of writing this off against future profits to reduce future tax.

That's not fair. The aggregate intelligence of the electorate was enough to note this and the unfairness in several other Labor proposals, hence Labor lost. If it fixes these things it can win next time. It also needs a coherent energy policy embracing the necessary evil of coal or nuclear, instead of pie-in-the-sky renewables targets that would fail on emissions while impoverishing taxpayers and consumers and bringing our international competitiveness to its knees.

I repeat, the electorate is not stupid, but Labor was.

Not sure about PAYE taxpayers copping losses.
Luciferase,
Well I AM sure of having losses mainly due to crime & Bureaucrat incompetence/corruption.
As a PAYE I was not entitled to "write off" any of them. The ATO only acknowledges losses when they're mere shortfalls of predicted business income/profit but not when they're genuine losses incurred by wage earners !

Luciferase,
A comment re commercial Welfare would be appreciated !