Abbott rekindles SMSF Party plans
Leading SMSF strategist Grant Abbott has rekindled his plans to establish a political party to advocate for SMSF-friendly policies in parliament.
In an update to members of the SMSF Party, which had amassed over 7,000 members since its formation earlier this year, party secretary Ashleigh Jaremyn said the group would seek to re-register itself with the Australian Electoral Commission, having failed to do so before the May federal election deadline.
“At this stage, it is important to go through the registration process again as some of the names we submitted to the Australian Electoral Commission were affiliated with another party, thereby making them unable to be registered for the SMSF Party,” Ms Jaremyn said.
She added that the party was seeking further details from those who had signed up to be members, in order to check their names against the electoral rolls and prevent any further delay to the party’s registration.
“Once we have the requisite names, off we go to the AEC [to] get registered, have our first meeting of members and then begin to formulate policy and interview some great people who have put their names up for candidacy,” Ms Jaremyn said.
“And of course, we will be heading to Canberra to meet with the current government, introducing ourselves [and] getting a seat at the retirement incomes table.”
Ms Jaremyn also outlined potential policy areas the party would focus on going forward and in the lead-up to the government’s retirement income systems review.
These included taxation of death benefits paid to adult children, lifting the concessional contribution cap for those approaching retirement, raising the transfer balance cap and enshrining refundable franking credits in protective legislation to prevent tinkering by future governments.
At the recent Class Connect 2019 conference, Mr Abbott discussed his reasons for establishing the party, which was one member short of being registered before the previous election.
“In a changing world, there is always going to be tinkering with laws and we saw that at the last election, where we got to the stage of getting the SMSF Party almost up and running,” he said.
“The easiest place to get budget repair is superannuation, and Morrison has already attacked it through the transfer balance cap and by reducing the maximum concessional cap to $25,000 — for someone over 50, that is absolutely crazy.”
