Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Liberals used to pretend they were standing up for working people. Now we know they're only standing up for the 0.5 per cent, and not the fact that 0.5 per cent are paying an appropriate amount of tax for the fact that they should be turning around in superannuation and paying an amount of tax which is appropriate to the amount of money they have. We all know, the country knows it—the people opposite me don't know it—that superannuation was built on the fact that its purpose was to make sure that we have money set aside for every Australian to be able to retire in a good and faithful way.

The Liberals have abandoned Howard's battlers. They're now just about Dutton's billionaires. We've initiated a response to the fact that $1 trillion worth of debt has been placed onto this country because of the excessive and inappropriate nature of how these people recklessly spent without investing to improve productivity in this country. Not only did we see wages go down but we saw productivity go down, because they flopped it, they failed. We as a country are paying the consequences.

What we're saying to those many billionaires is that, yes, there's still a tax benefit but the tax benefit has changed. Someone will have to turn around and look at this minor change to make sure that we have the opportunity to start paying down their debt. The people most capable of paying that down are the ones who are still getting a tax benefit—but not the tax benefit they were receiving for a scheme that they've been rorting, against the intent of the scheme. The scheme was always for making sure there was a fair and reasonable retirement scheme.

What we've been saying is that those people in the 0.5 per cent who have turned around and minimised their tax—not illegally but against the spirit of what that legislation was and because of the nature of what those opposite have done with a $1 trillion debt—should turn around and make a contribution. They still have an opportunity between now and the election to work out how they deal with those changes in circumstances.

I want to point out one of the billionaires these people across the way are supporting. Billionaire property magnate John Gandel has slammed the federal government's proposed change. I'm reading from an article by Ms Sambul on 2 March, in the Sydney Morning Herald. Sambul says:

Gandel made the criticism on Wednesday at the launch of a $70 million entertainment precinct at the huge Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne's south-east that he co-owns with the Vicinity Centres property group.

The mall magnate was frustrated by the government's decision to double the tax on earnings on superannuation balances over $3 million and said it would inevitably affect more than just the country's top earners.

Gandel said:

A tax hike on the top earners of the country who've worked hard in this country will always come down on the middle class.

This is John Gandel, right?

For those who don't recall some of the history with super, those opposite stopped the lowest paid people in this country—people who were getting the minimum superannuation, on International Women's Day, particularly women who are disadvantaged under superannuation—from getting the superannuation guarantee increase. In fact, from 2014 to 2020, from the Per Capita inquiry into the super consequences of their delay, it cost the average worker on $50-odd thousand a year $4,300. Nine per cent of their entire income for a year was stolen by these people across here. And they're worrying about Mr Gandel!

Of course Gandel is worried about the middle class. No, on second thoughts, I've looked and I've looked and he's never spoken about the fact that the minimum increase for the superannuation guarantee had to be fixed for the middle class. He's conflating his own self-interest. That $4,300 that would have been going to the dozens and hundreds and thousands of people who work in companies that he directly employs or employs through his developments would have got that money. So he pocketed that money. And guess where he put it? I guess he put it into his superannuation scheme. He took it out of theirs and put it into his. That's what he did. Dutton's billionaires won out. (Time expired)