Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

(—Deputy Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (): Thank you, Senator Payman, for opening the way for me to remind people what they voted for. They voted for a government who said that they would cut electricity bills by $275—broken promise; that people would have cheaper mortgages—broken promise; that there would be no changes to superannuation—broken promise; there would be lower inflation—broken promise; and that they would not touch franking credits—broken promise. They said there would not be industry-wide bargaining as 'It's not part of our policy,'—broken promise. We will be doing our bit to assist real wage rises—broken promise. I could go on and on and on about broken promises. In fact, the only promise they won't break is the promise to go out and buy water from innocent farmers. But, I digress, on the real issue today.

The real issue today is that, while Senator Payman is talking about people with tens of millions of dollars in super and over in the other place the assistant treasurer is talking about people with hundreds of millions of dollars in super, the reality is what Labor want to do is tax people at a threshold of just $3 million. Why won't you talk about the $3 million, Senator Payman? Why won't the Assistant Treasurer in the other place talk about the $3 million? Because, as we learned this week, it's not 0.5 per cent of the population that these super taxes will hit; it's a minimum of 10 per cent of the population. In 30 years' time, someone who is 37 today, will be hit by these taxes when they're ready to retire.

Now we are learning that, when asked in question time today, the Assistant Treasurer basically admitted that, yes, farmers or family businesses who have their assets in self-managed super should have just put more money aside for liquidity fluctuations. He said, 'Super is about providing a retirement income stream,' but in the same breath said that the very people who've put assets in their super for their retirement income stream should have put more cash aside to pay their taxes. The Assistant Treasurer basically said that farmers holding farmland or family businesses holding their assets in self-managed super funds could be forced to pay tens of thousands more in taxes under Labor's superannuation changes due to nothing more than fluctuations in volatile commercial property prices.

We are not talking about the few people with mainstream super who have balances over $3 million. We are talking about the very same hardworking people who have planned for their retirement. As the Assistant Treasurer said today, 'Superannuation is about providing adequate retirement savings,' and that's exactly what these people we're talking about have been doing. Now they're being told, 'If your paper valuation of your assets goes up, you need enough liquid cash to be able to pay your tax.'

The National Farmers Federation have warned that these superannuation changes could cool investment in agriculture. I, for one, have been talking ad infinitum about the need for Australians to invest in Australian agriculture. We need Australian super firms to invest in Australian agriculture. Indeed, overseas super firms think Australian agriculture is a great investment. Look at the Canadian superannuation funds. They invest over here. They won't be hit by these taxes. But we will cool our own investment in Australian agriculture through these changes.

For many farmers, their farm is their superannuation, and it's not uncommon to hold land assets in superannuation. What we've learnt today is that Labor will tax unrealised paper gains. If that's a 'yes' for property, it's also a 'yes' for shares. If it's a 'yes' for shares, it must also then apply to defined benefit funds, which means it must also apply to the hundreds of Commonwealth public servants who have high superannuation pension funds. They will also be quaking in fear at what we are learning, drip by drip, just like water torture, every time we hear more about this Labor super tax.