Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I do not accept the characterisation that that is what the government is doing. I want to remind everyone that, as a result of our reforms, the proposal is for earnings from capital of up to $1.6 million of savings—and that is right: that cap is indexed—will be completely tax free. Earnings on capital above $1.6 million would attract the still concessional tax of 15 per cent. The structural problem that we have in Australia is that when you have a growing proportion of income generated in Australia completely tax free—zero per cent income tax—it means that every other Australian, every working Australian, has to pay more tax than they otherwise would have to in order to fund the necessary services of government. That is why we are pursuing the reforms that we are pursuing.