Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is a looming threat to retirees in my electorate of Eden-Monaro. They are threatened by a multipronged attack on their retirement savings by the Australian Labor Party. As of the latest census, there were some 43,984 people over the age of 55 in my electorate. That is 32.5 per cent of the population of Eden-Monaro and compares with only 25.6 per cent for the nation as a whole. So Labor's attack on retirees is a dagger at the heart of a sizeable proportion of the people I represent in parliament—an attack on their incomes. Many constituents have already raised their concerns with me. So what is the threat to the people in my electorate? Two weeks ago, Labor's shadow Treasurer confirmed that Labor intends to 'fix' the superannuation system with a big new tax.

But first a little history lesson. I remind the House that Kevin Rudd, before the 2007 election, said that there would be no change to super—'not one jot, not one tittle'. But they broke their word. In fact they increased taxation on super by just short of $9 billion. In particular, Labor sought to add a new tax on earnings on super above $100,000. After all that, in 2013 they promised that for five years they would not make any changes to super. That was a promise by the then Labor Treasurer who is now the Labor shadow Treasurer—the member for McMahon. Now they are at it again.

In 2015, amongst other proposals, Labor has announced they would reduce their previous policy of a $100,000 income threshold to a new tax on super above just $75,000. This will affect, by some estimates, more than 300,000 retirees, many in my electorate. They have also said that they would not index those thresholds, affecting thousands more Australians as the years pass by and inflation brings the effective threshold down every year in real dollar terms. So much for the 2013 promise of a five-year moratorium on changes!

However, that 2013 promise of no new changes is not even their most recent one. The Leader of the Opposition said as recently as 22 April this year:

… these are the final and only changes Labor will make to the tax treatment of superannuation.

That sounds like a strong assurance, doesn't it? But less than one month later, in May this year, the shadow Treasurer said at the Press Club:

What we have flagged is that we are still doing work on other aspects of superannuation policy.

So there is obviously more to come. Indeed they are also explicitly flagging attacking the negative gearing that thousands of retirees rely on. Labor have made a calculated gamble, based on an appeal to the politics of envy, to target these retirees to fund the vote-buying spree that the Leader of the Opposition announced in his budget reply speech. They should not be allowed to do it.

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