Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, they don't. They don't, as the member for Monash has quite rightly points out. So why are we in a situation here where we are debating a bill that is going to disproportionately impact superannuation funds that have balances of over $3 million with a tax regime that applies nowhere else in our economy?

It is an egregious impost on Australians who have done the right thing by our country over many, many years. They have secured their future and also have continued to provide for and support our Australian economy, since many of these assets in the super funds, particularly the unlisted assets, are wealth producing. If it's a farm, it is producing food, cattle or other produce for the health, wellbeing and prosperity of this country. Why are we then imposing an additional tax that could mean, possibly, that people will have to sell part or all of that asset to pay the tax bill if they have a really good year? It is the same for our small to medium businesses in the industrial estates that are spread across all of our electorates right across the breadth of this nation. What are we doing to those businesses? If they have a good year or, as we have seen over the last few years, the yields and values of those assets increase significantly, what does that mean now? Do they have to sell the business premises that they operate out of? Where do they go, and what do they do then if the new owner doesn't want them to be in that shed? These are businesses that employ Australian people. They pay payroll tax, superannuation and a whole range of things. They contribute to our society and generate wealth, and we are creating an unnecessary burden on them because their owners have spent the last 10, 15, 20 or 30 years doing the right thing by our country and accumulating assets to provide for themselves and their families in retirement so that they don't have to be a burden on the Australian taxpayer. It is a complete and utter disgrace.

This bill should be opposed by every single person in this place because it is a travesty that we are seeing the government singling out a group of people who've done the right thing by our country and, as a consequence, are being penalised. These people have done and are doing the very thing that we, as successive governments of all political persuasions, have encouraged and supported them to do. And for what benefit? For the Treasurer to be able to stand up last night and manufacture a budget surplus off the back of work that previous governments have done. What is the value and purpose of the budget surplus they produced last night when they are stitching up Australian people who have worked hard their whole lives and imposing a punitive tax regime on them because they have had the temerity to be successful?

As I said earlier, there will be a disproportionate effect from this. I can go out and invest in a listed property trust or any other listed asset that has illiquid assets in it, and the managers of that fund don't have this burden. That is a complete and utter disgrace, and the government should hang its head in shame. I am proud that as a coalition we are opposing this bill.

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