The Federal Opposition has again acknowledged that it will have to embark on a round of industry consultation before moving to settle its superannuation policy in the event that it wins this Saturday’s Federal Election.
The Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, indicated a consultative process after the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP’s) policy costings indicated a need to draw on the same level of superannuation-related savings identified by the Government.
Echoing the assurance made by the Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Jim Chalmers, to the Super Review Future of Superannuation event in late May that Labor would be examining policy measures for unintended consequences, Bowen said that while the Opposition wanted to raise the same amount of money, there would be a consultative process.
However, he made clear the Labor Party was not about to embrace what it regarded as the retrospective elements of the Government’s Budget superannuation tax changes.
“We’d like to consult with the sector, from government, with the resources of Treasury to ensure that any measures that we implement are implemented in a very fair manner,” Bowen said.
“We’ve expressed grave concern about the retrospective nature of one measure in particular, the $500,000 cap. We want to sit down with the sector and work out the best way to proceed to raise the same amount of money,” he said.
“The contributions tax is one that we announced last April; the government has appropriated that. That is now bipartisan policy. Our earnings tax measure and the government’s $1.6 million measure have some similarities to it, but there’s some complexities there that would need to be worked through.”
