Also, not a former Australian prime minister. He was the deputy premier of New South Wales.

Wrong, the real reason the CGT discount exists is because it's a tax on wealth. My uncle, who makes 100k+ a week through owning houses 'earns' almost all of it as capital gains. Me as a worker pleb get almost all of my income via wages. I pay income tax, he pays CGT. Further, as a regular worker, a large percentage what I make is spent on goods and services which is subject to GST. He spends more than me on goods and services for sure but as an overall percentage of what he 'makes', it's very small. Most of his wealth gets reinvested into properties, not subject to GST.

Both of these policies were introduced in 1999 by the Howard government and the intent is clear. To regress our tax system and shift the tax burden away from the wealthy.