POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Morrison accuses Labor of costing retirees $3.75 billion
Treasurer Scott Morrison has claimed that Labor’s dividend imputation refund policy will cost Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) regulated superannuation funds $3.75 billion, as he again hit out at the Opposition’s “bungled and damaging retiree tax”.
According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), franking credit refunds in 2015-16 were worth over $300 million to APRA-regulated funds. Morrison said that when consideration is taken for the fact that these funds would not only lose income but also couldn’t make returns on it, the real dollar cost of the policy to such funds would have been $3.75 billion over the last decade.
Morrison said that, despite Labor’s “so-called” pensioner guarantee, pensioners whose APRA funds were affected would not be exempt from the policy.
“Labor's proposal is an old-fashioned Labor tax sledgehammer targeted at pensioners and retirees to grab as much tax as possible because they can't live within their means and control their spending. It's a tax on low and middle-income Australians and their future retirement nest eggs,” Morrison said.
He hit out at Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, for standing by the policy despite its possible impact on retirees.
“Remarkably, Chris Bowen released a statement today confirming and bragging about the fact billions of dollars would be wiped from hundreds of thousands of super accounts, that pensioners won't be exempt and that Labor doesn't care,” Morrison said.
“Rather than patting himself on the back for ripping billions out of the retirement savings of pensioners and retirees, Chris Bowen should put his hand up, admit his proposal stinks and drop it.”
Recommended for you
The lower outlook for inflation has set the stage for another two rate cuts over the first half of 2026, according to Westpac.
With private asset valuations emerging as a key concern for both regulators and the broader market, Apollo Global Management has called on the corporate regulator to issue clear principles on valuation practices, including guidance on the disclosures it expects from market participants.
Institutional asset owners are largely rethinking their exposure to the US, with private markets increasingly being viewed as a strategic investment allocation, new research has shown.
Australia’s corporate regulator has been told it must quickly modernise its oversight of private markets, after being caught off guard by the complexity, size, and opacity of the asset class now dominating institutional portfolios.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
92.15 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
53.24 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
43.15 3 y p.a(%)
4
DomaCom Shoreline North Coogee
36.26 3 y p.a(%)
5
GAM LSA Private Shares AU I
35.87 3 y p.a(%)
