Former Greens advisers Ben Oquist Richard Denniss’s Australia Institute behind superannuation reform

A left-wing think tank led by Green advisers demanded a crackdown on superannuation tax concessions just weeks before the Labor government made an announcement.

Ben Oquist, former chief of staff to Greens leader Bob Brown, was chief executive of the Australia Institute for seven years until July.

He is also married to Green senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Oquist’s successor, Richard Denniss, was a senior strategic adviser to Brown before he was named chief executive.

The Australia Institute argued on February 3 that the concessionary 15 per cent tax rate for extraordinary contributions costs $52.6 billion a year and was meant to exceed the annual bill for old age pensions.

“New research shows that the cost to the federal budget of generous retirement tax concessions is now on par with the cost of a full old-age pension and higher than the total cost of the entire NDIS in 2022-2023,” said.

‘The annual cost of the super tax concessions ($52.6b) is on par with the value of the entire old-age pension program ($55.3b)’.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his assistant Stephen Jones on Tuesday released a Statement of Expenses and Tax Information along much the same lines.

“Revenue lost from retirement tax concessions is about $50 billion a year,” they said.

‘The cost of these concessions is projected to exceed the cost of the Age Pension by 2050.’

The government statement also addressed the cost of the National Disability Insurance Plan.

“Since we came into government, we have been outspoken about the challenges facing the economy and the budget,” he said.

“We inherited a trillion dollars of debt, as well as mounting spending pressures on defense, health, elderly care and the NDIS.”

Unsurprisingly, the Australia Institute welcomed Labor’s announcement on Tuesday, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowing he would not change retirement before the May 2022 election.

“The changes announced today to the super tax concessions by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are a welcome step towards the fairness and sustainability of Australia’s retirement income system,” he said.

But Denniss said Labor needed to do more.

“Costly and unfair tax breaks for multi-million dollar super accounts should have been withdrawn long ago,” he said.

“While this is a great first step, further reform is needed to ensure fairness and sustainability in Australia’s retirement income system.”

The Australian Institute has campaigned for 15 years against the favorable 15 per cent tax rate for extraordinary contributions that debuted in 2006 under the leadership of Liberal treasurer Peter Costello.

Oquist was chief executive from 2015 to 2022, and in June 2015 he tweeted his support for Green senators Richard Di Natale, the party’s former leader, and Rachel Siewert for pushing for a review of retirement tax concessions.

‘Positive move by Richard Di Natale and Senator Siewert: progressive pension reform is good and retirement tax review is essential,’ he said.

In April 2021, he tweeted a Guardian article about an Australian Institute report on superannuation which noted: “Men receive ‘oversized’ benefit from major tax concessions.”

The Australia Institute published a 2014 report by Matt Grudnoff on super profits that was titled “A Super Waste of Money.”

“Supertax concessions are not only becoming a burden on the budget, but it is clear that they are increasingly being used as a way for high-income households to avoid tax rather than as an income support measure. retirement,” he said.

Former Labor Party shadow treasurer Chris Bowen complained in 2015 about the cost of super-contribution concessions, but the ALP had not announced any formal policy proposals until this week.

Previous Labor Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd had not changed the supertax policy.

The Australia Institute has a slogan: ‘We change our minds’.

Labor is proposing to end the favorable 15 per cent tax rate for extraordinary contributions for the 80,000 Australians, or 0.5 per cent of the population, with more than $3m in retirement savings.

Oquist and Denniss are not the only directors of the Australia Institute with connections to the Greens.

Founder Clive Hamilton, a professor who was chief executive from 1993 to 2008, ran as the Greens’ candidate in the December 2009 Higgins by-election in inner Melbourne.

That was prompted by the political retirement of Mr. Costello, the treasurer who introduced the favorable 15 percent super tax rate.