Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the amendment moved by the member for North Sydney, and that is in the context of the rest of this legislation. This legislation is going to tax unrealised gains in super, which I think is bad policy. It is bad tax policy, but it is particularly bad and particularly damaging, I am concerned to see, potentially, for the venture and startup and scale-up sector. In this case, because of that combination of taxing unrealised gains and not indexing the balance, I think that we will increasingly drive money away from risk assets such as ventures, which are volatile in their returns and in their evaluations, and that makes this a problematic situation.

To tax unrealised gains and then, at the same time, not index them means that I expect to see—based on all the evidence I have had from members of the technology sector and the venture sector—money going out of self-managed super, which is a really important source of capital for the venture sector. That is of enormous concern for me, as Australia is looking down a productivity hole and we know that young, growing firms are the most important sources of productivity that our economy has. That is why I rise in support of the member for North Sydney's amendment.

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