Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government's got a bit on. One of the things it should be focusing on is fixing cost-of-living issues and the crisis that exists. I'm just shaking my head at the moment, because instead they're putting their time into where it isn't needed. They're focusing on wasting this parliament's time and fixing a problem that doesn't need fixing—it doesn't exist. The Albanese government think a small number of wealthy people are accumulating too much superannuation, so their solution is to introduce significant, complex and far-reaching legislation in response to this.

What they're proposing is that, from 1 July next year, the tax rate on superannuation earnings for balances over $3 million be doubled to 30 per cent. When the government first proposed this measure, they were trying to capture a small number of individuals who had superannuation balances exceeding $50 million. I agree that super balances of that size are outside the original intent of our superannuation policy. But, having said that, I think these individuals have complied with the legislation as it stood at the time that they invested, and it was done in good faith. But this new legislation makes no sense when it comes to that. The laws have already been changed to prevent the accrual of huge super balances, and these supercharged balances will vanish over time due to existing policy measures. All this legislation will do is add further complexity, more red tape and more cost. Alarmingly, it will change the very way superannuation operates in this country.

This government has proposed that unrealised capital gains be included in this measurement of earnings. This is such a naive position. I find it difficult to believe that a government would even put forward such legislation. How do you value an asset, in my case a farm, that is continuously fluctuating depending on market forces and nature? How do they not know that a paper increase is not money in anyone's pocket, particularly in a farmer's? What happens when the asset fluctuates up one year and down the next? A balance of $3 million might seem on the surface like a large sum of money now, but the lack of indexation will see more and more Australians caught by this measure as time passes.

This is a policy that the Albanese government said was targeted at the super rich; well, it's not. It will actually erode super balances of every single Australian and send some small-business owners and farmers to the wall. Taxing unrealised capital gains is inherently unfair. It's bad policy and it should never have been introduced.