Huge blow to Labor’s radical plan to reshape Australia’s superannuation system – as the Greens launch a scathing attack on retirement savings plan
Massive blow to Labor’s radical plan to reform Australia’s pension system – as Greens launch devastating attack on pension savings plan
The Greens are now threatening to block Labour’s plan to double taxes on ultra-wealthy Australians with more than $3 million in pension savings unless super is added to paid parental leave.
Senate Green leader Larissa Waters announced Friday that her party will vote with the Coalition to block the federal government’s plan to raise $2.3 billion a year by raising taxes on $80,000. Australians, or the 0.5 percent of pension savers. .
“This is such a timidly proposed change to the tax breaks the obscenely rich receive,” she said.
“If Labor isn’t going to improve it, they can at least make good use of it.”
Senate Green leader Larissa Waters announced Friday that her party will vote with the Coalition to block the federal government’s plan to raise $2.3 billion a year by raising taxes on $80,000. Australians, or the 0.5 percent of pension savers.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced in February that if Labor won the next election, those with more than $3 million in super money would pay a 30 percent concessional tax rate on contributions instead of the usual 15 percent rate from July 1, 2025.
READ MORE: Baby boomer accuses young people of being entitled
A baby boomer who paid 18 percent interest in the late 1980s and didn’t buy coffee says young people today have a right to it if they refuse to live in the suburbs, as she did.
Terri Cross, now 75, was a single mother who paid off a duplex when interest rates continued to rise in 1988 and 1989
With opposition to the idea, Labor needs the support of the Greens, along with centre-left crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock to get that legislation through the Senate.
The Greens have 11 senators and are threatening to reject Labour’s plan to raise super-taxes unless legislation is introduced to add pensions to paid parental leave.
Senator Waters, speaking on behalf of women on behalf of the Greens, argued that this would only cost $200 million a year.
“We will use our balance of power in the Senate to get results for women and young families struggling with the cost of living,” she said.
“We know that Australian women retire with significantly less pension savings than men.”
Australian tax office data for 2020-2021 showed that men aged 60 to 64 had a median super balance of $211,996, compared to $158,806 for women in the same age group.
This means that women generally have 25 percent less pension savings than men.
The Greens based their $200 million proposal on models from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, released in March ahead of the election budget.
ASFA also recommends that a single Australian needs $595,000 to have a comfortable retirement – a level the Grattan Institute, Super Consumers Australia and Barefoot Investor author Scott Pape says is too high.
Primary carers of a newborn baby are already entitled to 18 weeks of paid parental leave, but this will be increased to 26 weeks from July 2026.
The entitlement increases to 20 weeks in July 2024 and 22 weeks in July 2025.
The Greens have already threatened to block Labour’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which aims to build 30,000 homes over five years.
Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens’ housing spokesman, has argued that the plan is based on gambling money on the government’s Future Fund and instead wants to set aside $2.5 billion a year specifically for social housing construction. housing and a rent freeze of two years.
The Greens have 11 senators and are threatening to vote down Labor’s plan to raise supertaxes for people with more than $3 million in superannuators unless legislation is introduced to add the pension to paid parental leave (stock image)
If Labor’s housing and super policies were rejected twice in the Senate, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would be prompted to call a double dissolution election.
This would mean that all members of parliament would have to campaign for re-election, not just members of the House of Representatives and half of the Senate, as happens in ordinary general elections.
The Greens won the Brisbane House of Commons seats for the first time in the May 2022 election, Griffith and Ryan covering the wealthy inner city suburbs which are all home to a large number of university student tenants.