Labor worried about approach to super changes

The Federal Opposition is worried about the Government's haste and handling of superannuation as the debate over superannuation and retirement incomes is only gathering steam in unpredictable ways.  

In an address at Super Review's The Future of Superannuation conference today, shadow minister for financial services and superannuation, Jim Chalmers, said the set of proposed super changes outlined in the Budget were among the most drastic since compulsory super was introduced. 

"Like the Government, our priority is to redesign the tax concessions so that they are better-targeted. The issue we take with the Budget measures is not the ends, but the means," Chalmers said. 

"For some time now, Labor has been right to focus on the poorly-targeted nature of super tax concessions and we are right to keep our focus on tax concessions now. But change must be approached in the right way." 

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Chalmers noted that the party had welcomed the measures and said they were a carbon copy of their own policy. 

"...like lowering the threshold for the High Income Superannuation Contribution and reinstating the Low Income Superannuation Contribution, renamed as the Low Income Superannuation Tax Offset," he said. 

"As my colleague Senator Jenny McAllister has said, 'if we had known that the only problem the Government had was with the name, we could have sorted it out two years ago!'. 

"We're reluctant to rush to judgement when there's a genuine risk that some of the changes could go the way of the Backpacker Tax; the 15 per cent GST; the state income tax; the capital gains changes in super -- ruled out, then in and out again in one day; the permanent freeze on the Super Guarantee; the optional opt-out of super for low income earners, which has been denied and delayed now for reasons of political expediency." 

Chalmers said Labor's priority was also looking at the $500,000 lifetime limit, especially to see if there was a prospective way to implement the policy. 

"We will take into account feedback on the $1.6 million measure as it compares to our $75,000 earnings measure. We will look across the board at the intersections of the measures and whether they are working together or at cross purposes," he said. 

He said the party wanted the following for this parliamentary term: 

• Better targeted tax concessions; 
• More adequate retirement balances for low income earners and through the middle, which have been hurt by SG freezes; 
• Narrowing of the gender gap; 
• Super paid to those who have earned it, not the watered-down penalties for non-compliance which failed in the Senate; 
• A more rigorous way of making and evaluating and advocating policy via the Council of Superannuation Custodians; and 
• Predictable changes flagged well in advance, not 60 days out from an election.