He added that while the association was urging the government to delay implementing this legislation, this did not alter its total opposition to the design of this tax, particularly the taxing of unrealised capital gains.

Geoff Wilson, Wilson Asset Management’s chair and chief investment officer, continued at a Q&A session with Burgess that he is more hopeful that the government may walk away from the legislation as it currently stands.

“I [previously] thought there was a one per cent chance, but now I think there is a five per cent chance that they'll walk away from it,” Wilson said.

“We've heard the Treasurer is 100 per cent for it, but we've heard at various points in time that [Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese is against it.”

Wilson said when he first started the petition against the taxation of unrealised gains just after the May federal election, he was surprised at the cohort of people who signed it, believing that it would comprise mostly of his own company’s clients.

“I think a little over 60 per cent of the people that signed the petition aren't associated with our shareholders. We used that data in the electorates, and adjusted it for the skews of SMSFs, and extrapolated that out if the election was held today, and who would lose their seat because of it.”

“The fascinating thing is a lot of people that signed this petition are in Labor electorates that have low SMSFs, and it showed that 29 Labor seats will be lost and one Green seat will be lost [if this legislation is passed].”

Wilson continued that the strategy he is now pursuing in light of this data is to focus the minds of those 29 Labor politicians on the ramifications of passing the legislation as it stands.

He added that recent discussions have also revealed that the government has yet to consult with the Greens about the legislation, indicating that it is not confident of its success.

“Why haven't they engaged? Why hasn't there been some engagement between Labor and the Greens? Maybe it's dead.”

Burgess added that while the government does need the support of the Greens to pass the legislation, he believes there are too few sitting days left in August and early September for the legislation to be debated and passed.

“Then the earliest they'll get it passed is October. They're still talking about a 1 July 2025 start date and I cannot see how that can happen.”

“There were so many issues, and part of what we're doing at the moment is trying to point out the technicalities of backdating taxes like this. It is verging on unworkable if they do that. I think if they haven't had these discussions with the Greens yet, it's going to be difficult for them to get this legislation through both houses in the same sitting. That's not easy to do.”