The upper house was home to a fiery debate on Thursday after Senator Michaelia Cash, presented a motion to discharge the $3 million super tax bill.
Although the motion was defeated, this bill is unlikely to be put to the Senate before an election given Thursday was the last sitting day before Labor presents its budget on 25 March.
Speaking to SMSF Adviser, Peter Burgess, the CEO of the SMSF Association, said it’s time for the government to take this measure off the table.
“The Senate does not support the bill,” Burgess said.
He suggested the government’s determination to have the bill pass centres on the forecasted budget revenue it was expected to generate.
“It’s now all about the revenue,” Burgess said, adding that a conversation in parliament this week between the Treasurer and his shadow revealed that if the bills fail, an alternative revenue source will need to be found.
“There was a question from shadow treasurer Angus Taylor in Parliament earlier in the week about taxing unrealised capital gains. The Treasurer replied that if the opposition was not going to approve this bill, then they would have to figure out where they will get their revenue from,” Burgess said.
In presenting the motion for dismissal, Senator Cash accused the government and the Greens of eyeing Australia’s superannuation “pot” as government funds.
“You have the audacity to say to hard-working Australians who go into work every day, they work hard, they are putting money away for their retirement, ‘it’s not your money, it’s the Labor Party’s money, and it’s the Green Party money’,” she said.
“’It doesn’t matter how hard you worked, guess what? It’s a pot of money, and we are going to take it from you’.”
She added that although the government said the new tax would only impact some 80,000 Australians, Treasury figures suggested that number would be much larger.
“All those young people out there who might be thinking, ‘I’m going to vote Greens’, just remember, you will be working hard for many decades to come,” Senator Cash said.
“You will be putting away money into your superannuation for your retirement. And guess what, there’s not 80,000 of you. There is literally going to be one in 10 Australians the Labor Party and the Australian Greens are going after to take your hard-earned money.”
On the opposite side of the aisle, Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher, accused the opposition of attempting to undermine the system.
“Those opposite oppose superannuation every time, from its inception, where they voted against it, to now, when they continue to look at ways to undermine superannuation,” Minister Gallagher said.
“They cannot stand working people having access to capital to fund their retirement. That’s ultimately what this is about. You cannot bear it. You can’t bear the size of the superannuation industry. You can’t bear working people, particularly industry funds, actually having resources in this country, on behalf of their members.”
Greens senator Nick McKim said: “The Liberals have come in here today, and they are basically asking us to think about the bloated, tiny cohort of wealthy superannuants with balances over $3 million.”
“Well, the Greens are going to think of people who can’t get their teeth fixed and get to the dentist. We’re thinking of people who don’t go to the GP because they can’t afford to see a doctor,” he said.
“And we’re thinking of them because we believe big corporations and billionaires should be forced to pay their fair share of tax.”
At the conclusion of the debate, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie called the debate a “farce” and accused the government of trying to silence small business owners and farmers.
“This bill is not just going to affect some microcosm of Australians – it will affect every small business owner, every family farmer in this country,” she said.
The labor politicians party are criminals. It is ok for them to have multi house investments and negative gearing. The ELBOW CREATURE investment mansion with ocean views is very nice he was so greedy with the asking rent that no one would pay it.
What Labor and the Greens fail to understand is that those who may have more than $3m in their super fund have been paying taxes during their working life and most would not be receiving any age pensions or benefits in their retirement either.
And with a married couple, they may have less then $3m (say, $2m) each in their super fund but if one pre-deceases the other it would be quite common for the deceased’s entitlement be transferred to the surviving spouse and then the survivor would have more than $3m in super.
And there has been many comments made previously about not indexing whatever the maximum figure happens to be and taxing unrealised capital gains that should be addressed if anything is to be legislated – in addition to these issues, they should also be some relief made when a surviving spouse receives receives a deceased’s entitlement
Watching Senate live and isn’t the Bill still on the list? The motion to remove was defeated?
If the Libs want to ensure the revenue just redraft the bill so that it is increased with CPI and only applies to taxable income and not accounting income.
Speaking to one dentist that I know, the people getting their teeth fixed are those being paid under the very generous NDIS as carers for independent people that they care for. The same NDIS that is funded by tax payers beyond anything ever imagined.
The Labor and Green parties are desperate for these funds. They will create laws to just take them – I guess a communist party would not bother with creating the laws?
It is OK for these people on their bloated tax-payer funded generous pensions. Too bad for us that already pay the bulk of taxes to pay for the politician’s pension and, and, and – so the monstrous list of waste continues. And us who have sacrificed to be able to look after ourselves in our old-age without having to depend on the public purse. Of course the Labor party and Greens don’t like us. They prefer everyone to be dependent on them except for the ones that of course need to pay for all of this. And we are the dummies because hard-work and sacrifice is in our DNA.
So, its more stress and angst I see…. and little time to plan anything.
Be sure to have your plans in place if this gets through. I have sold my business – Step 1 ticked off for me. Ready to retire – Step 2 ASAP if this gets through. Restructure and move assets from super – Step 3. Live life and enjoy what I have missed out on through my sacrifices over literally decades – Step 4.