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Anthony Albanese has been accused of breaking a key election promise after the Prime Minister announced that Australians with more than $3m in super-fixes would lose tax concessions.
During last year’s election campaign, Albanese told a Sky News reporter that he would not meddle with retirement savings if Labor were elected.
“We have said that we have no intention of making any superchanges,” he said.
But the prime minister announced on Tuesday that the richest 0.5 percent of people in Australia would see their super-contribution tax rate double to 30 percent, up from 15 percent on July 1, 2025.
Mr Albanese stressed that the favorable 15 per cent tax rate would continue to apply for the 99.5 per cent of Australians with less than $3 million in retirement savings.
Seven News political editor Mark Riley suggested Tuesday’s announcement, to save the budget $2bn a year, amounted to a broken election promise on retirement while addressing a news conference in Canberra.
“You had no intention of changing it, you had no intention of major changes,” Riley said.
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Anthony Albanese has been accused of breaking a key election promise after the Prime Minister announced Australians with more than $3m in super would lose tax concessions.
‘What absolute commitment can you give to the 99.5 per cent of Australians who won’t be affected by this change that you won’t mess with their super?’
Albanese suggested that the 80,000 Australians who will pay the most in tax for their super were particularly wealthy.
“It’s hard to argue that those levels refer to actual retirement income, which is what retirement is for,” he said.
The prime minister pointed to figures showing 17 Australians had more than $100 million in their retirement savings accounts, including a mystery person who had more than $400 million in their retirement savings accounts.
But on May 2, 2022, when Albanese was still leader of the opposition, he promised there would be no major changes to retirement.
Mr Albanese was then asked by Sky News reporter Julia Bradley about taxes on retirement savings and caps.
“We have said that we have no intention of making any superchanges,” he said.
“One of the things we’re doing in this campaign is making all of our policies clear, we’re posting them for everyone to see.”
During a press conference in Canberra, Seven News political editor Mark Riley suggested that Tuesday’s announcement, to save $2bn a year on the budget, amounted to a broken election promise.
Albanese is far from the only prime minister accused of breaking a promise.
Former Labor leader Julia Gillard promised in August 2010 that she would not have carbon tax ‘under the government I lead’ to Ten News presenter Bill Woods, only to introduce one in 2011 when the ALP relied on the Greens and regional independents left-leaning to retain power in a minority government.
Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard in May 1995, as Leader of the Opposition, had said at a business lunch in Sydney that there would “never again” be a GST, but he took that excise tax policy to voters for a mandate before the 1998 elections, after gaining power in 1996.
The Albanian government’s changes will not take effect until July 1, 2025, after the next elections, meaning voters still have a chance to give their verdict on the policy.
But shadow treasurer Angus Taylor accused Albanese and his treasurer, Jim Chalmers, of reneging on a commitment to voters.
“Well, another day, another broken election promise from the Labor Party,” he said.
‘Today, we have seen the Prime Minister and Treasurer walk away from their commitment not to add tax to retirement.
Former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised in August 2010 that there would be no carbon tax on Ten News, only to introduce one in 2011 when the ALP relied on the Greens and regional left-wing independents to retain power in a minority government.
“This was an unequivocal commitment from the Prime Minister: he said he would not raise taxes on the Australian super.”
The crackdown on those with more than $3 million in super is intended to save $2 billion to Treasury coffers.
The concessionary 15 percent tax rate for extraordinary contributions costs the budget $53 billion a year, and Dr. Chalmers argues that was almost as much as the old-age pension.
The favorable tax rate of 15 percent is well below the marginal income tax rate of 45 percent for those who earn more than $180,000.
That threshold will increase to $200,000 on July 1, 2024 when the Stage Three income tax cuts take effect, costing $254 billion over a decade.
Labor introduced the compulsory pension in 1992 when Paul Keating was Prime Minister, but the Howard government introduced concessional tax rates of 15 per cent on pension contributions in 2006.
Controversial tax policies make re-election campaigns more difficult: Labor lost a majority in 2010 after marking a mining tax and the Coalition lost 14 seats in 1998 when Howard campaigned for a 10 per cent GST.