Subject: Labor’s superannuation shambles.
E&OE.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well, there are fresh concerns over the future of our super. Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton claiming retirement savings will be under attack in the May budget. Meantime, the Treasurer denies plans to make any major changes to your super. Here’s Jim Chalmers going toe to toe with 3AW’s brilliant Neil Mitchell:
[excerpt]
NEIL MITCHELL:
Do you accept that your changes to superannuation are a broken promise?
JIM CHALMERS:
Well, first of all, we’re not proposing any changes. We haven’t decided any changes.
NEIL MITCHELL:
Are you considering taxing at a different rate income on the superannuation deposits over a certain level?
JIM CHALMERS:
Well, we haven’t come to a concluded view.
NEIL MITCHELL:
No, but are you considering it? Because that’s a bloody major change, isn’t it?!
JIM CHALMERS:
I don’t think so.
[end excerpt]
KARL STEFANOVIC:
By the afternoon on Chris O’Keefe’s 2GB Drive show, the Treasurer had finally got his messaging right. But all of this as everyday Australians deal with shocking super fund performances, returns for balanced funds last year – which most people are in – expected to be in the red by 4.8 per cent. The Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joins us now in Darwin. Peter, good morning to you.
PETER DUTTON:
`Morning, Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
If Labor does make any kind of change, will you wind it back in government, however far away that might be?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, we’d seek to block it in the first instance because it’s clearly a broken promise. The difficulty in the superannuation space is that people want certainty around that investment class. If you’ve got kids at the moment who are talking to their grandparents who are on the cusp of retirement, or indeed their parents, then they’re going to be saying, ‘well, hang on, why would I invest into superannuation if the rules keep changing and the taxes keep increasing, and every time Labor gets into government they run out of money and they start increasing the taxes on superannuation to plug the gap?’ If you create that uncertainty, then people won’t invest, and the whole idea of superannuation is that it provides for people’s retirement so that they can lead a dignified retirement, and, in the end, it’s their money. I mean, they’re the ones that have worked for it and contributed. They want the maximum return so that they can enjoy a good retirement.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You made changes back in 2016 and that didn’t really stop investment. How is this different?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think if you look at a government that goes to an election with a commitment and then breaks that commitment, that creates great uncertainty, because even the Prime Minister yesterday at the Press Club had, you know, some fancy words – probably a little more sophisticated than Jim Chalmers just then – but he’s saying, “look, we don’t have any intention now, there won’t be any major changes, at least that’s not our intention.” I mean, that’s just double talk for taxes coming in the budget.
I think Australians want stability, particularly at the moment when every other aspect of their financial existence is under pressure – your house prices is going down, interest rates are going up, and it makes it very difficult if you’re on the cusp of retirement or you’re planning on, you might be 55 years of age and taking financial advice probably to put more money to salary sacrifice into superannuation and you’ve got a government that’s talking about taxing it in different ways. That creates great uncertainty.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Wayne Swan was on our program about half an hour ago, basically conceding that a $3 million…
PETER DUTTON:
Sorry to hear that, Karl!
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well, he is the nation’s second-best treasurer behind Chairman Costello! That $3 million super…
PETER DUTTON:
And the ALP president, so yeah, there you go.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yeah ok, it was going to happen. So, this is the reality. It’ll affect 36,000 people but inject around $1 billion back into the budget each year. Is that worth it for taxpayers? Surely.
PETER DUTTON:
Look Karl, I just think if you’re a small business owner that’s sold your business or, you know, if you made some money on crypto or you got a redundancy payout, the financial advisor has advised you, according to the law, to roll some of that money into superannuation. You might be a bit younger, you’ve had a high growth strategy, you bought some tech stocks and that has increased in value. Good luck to you. You’ve made that sacrifice, it could have gone the other way, you’ve got a reasonable balance in superannuation and the government now is saying that they’re going to tax it and effectively it’s a retrospective arrangement because, you didn’t put the money in knowing that deal.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Pete, the point is that no one’s going to care so much about the 1 per cent if they’re leaving everything else.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, it never stops there with Labor. It always, you know, if you’re in that bracket where you’ve got a bit more money in superannuation – again, your money – well if Labor runs out of, you know, revenue sources and they’ve then got to come after the next rung down from that and the next rung down from that. There are a lot of Australians who are very aspirational, who work hard and for many, they’ll have to drawdown out of their superannuation to pay their mortgage off so that they don’t have those payments in retirement as well. So, people have pumped money into superannuation and the uncertainty that the Prime Minister’s creating, I think it just shows that they can’t manage the budget or the economy.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright. Peter Dutton, good to talk to you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
[ends]