New Greens leader Larissa Waters indicated that the party would support the tax, although it would be seeking to lower the threshold from $3 million to $2 million.

Waters stated in an interview with The Australian newspaper that she sees “no difficulty” with the taxing of unrealised capital gains but would like to see the threshold lowered to capture more than the 0.5 per cent of taxpayers the government claims would be impacted by the $3 million threshold.

Pearl, however, said he believes the government has “misread” the election result and that its win was due to a combination of factors, including voters’ reluctance to “toss out” one-term governments, the “Trump effect” and a poorly run opposition campaign.

“I'm surprised that Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese haven't stood up and said they have an electoral mandate to impose this unprecedented assault on Australian taxpayers,” he said.

He continued that although the government has stated the practice of taxing unrealised capital gains is already in practice, he said it is very different from what it is proposing in the superannuation system.

“We tax unrealised land values through land tax and rates, but as I've already explained, those taxes typically are 1 to 2 per cent and land values don't change in a volatile way,” Pearl said.

“This is a new departure for our income tax system. I think that's the big thing about this, and it will undoubtedly cause a lot of harm. I think the principle is the objection, because a taxpayer shouldn't have to go into debt or sell assets simply to meet a tax liability, and that's what this unrealised capital gains tax will do to them.”

He explained that an SMSF invested in an illiquid asset such as a business or a farm, won't be able to sell a percentage of that asset in order to meet their tax liability.

“When they get the bill from the ATO, they'll either have to sell other assets or go into debt. I think that's the difficulty,” Pearl added.

“Those with investments in industry or retail funds are in a different position. They can make withdrawals from those funds fairly easily. So, it's really an assault on those with self-managed super funds, which account for $1 trillion of our $4 trillion stock of super with investments in unlisted or illiquid assets.”