Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline for the House how the government is ensuring the economic security of all Australians who have saved for their retirement? Is the Treasurer aware of any other higher taxing alternative approaches?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to say to the member for Mackellar what a brilliant job he's done on the parliamentary committee, standing up for people who are going to be hurt by Labor's retiree tax. He's done a brilliant job, including standing up for over 10,000 people in his own electorate who are going to be hit by Labor's dreaded tax. Imagine what those 10,000 plus people in Mackellar thought when they turned on 7.30 last night to see the smug member for McMahon dismiss the concerns of more than 1 million Australians by saying that the Labor Party won't change one jot—won't change one bit—of their dreaded retiree tax, which is a $55 billion hit on Australian retirees who have done nothing wrong. These people have done nothing wrong, except diligently save and plan for their own retirement. Like Rose, whose story to the inquiry was told by a friend and colleague. She is a schoolteacher, aged 53, living alone in a one-bedroom unit, who, through her self-managed super fund is aiming to retire with savings that generate an income of $50,000. Under the Labor Party's policy, she stands to lose over $10,000 a year and is wondering whether she should change her asset allocation and go on the pension. In the words of one of her colleagues, 'Rose is distraught and she doesn't understand why Labor are going after the little people.' 'School teachers vote Labor,' her colleague said. But, come the federal election, there is no chance.

The Leader of the Opposition thought he would dig a bigger hole and stand beside the member for McMahon and say, like Margaret Thatcher, that he was not for turning—he was not for turning on this policy. But I tell you what, another quote of Margaret Thatcher's would have been more apt. Margaret Thatcher said, 'The problem with socialism is that at the end of the day you run out of other people's money.' The Labor Party is running out of hard-earned taxpayers money to spend, and now they're coming after more than one million retirees and their self-managed super funds. Only one side of politics will stand with retired Australians, and that's the Liberal-National government under this Prime Minister.