More than 100,000 super-rich Australians are seen as the big losers if Labor is forced to form a minority government with the Greens after the next election, as polls suggest.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has signaled that Labor is unwilling to negotiate with the left-wing minor party over its plan to double contribution tax on retirement balances over $3 million to 30 per cent.
But if Labor loses its majority at the next election, it could be forced to rely on the Greens to form a minority government.
Labor says its plan will only affect the top 0.5 per cent of super savers or 80,000 people from July 2025.
The Greens, however, want the threshold to be $1.9 million instead of $3 million for accumulated retirement accounts.
According to its own estimates based on tax office data, this would affect 104,141 people, or 0.6 percent of the population.
Green members of the Senate economy committee made their position clear in a dissenting report on Labour’s 2023 pension concessions bill and other more targeted measures.
“Australia’s superannuation system is no longer about ensuring a decent retirement for workers,” they said in May 2024.
More than 100,000 Australians could be the biggest losers if Labor were forced to form a minority government with the Greens after the next election (pictured left, Greens leader Adam Bandt with his wife Claudia) .
“Successive parliaments have misrepresented its purpose to the point that it is now Australia’s primary tax haven for wealth accumulation and estate planning.”
Senator Nick McKim, the Greens’ Treasury and “economic justice” spokesman, recommended raising taxes on super by “removing and reducing all tax arrangements that disproportionately benefit higher earners and asset owners”.
He argued they should be punished because 0.6 per cent of people own 14 per cent of Australia’s super.
‘Not only is the legislation narrowly enforced to not even cover the top one-hundredth of asset owners in the country, it fails to address the multitude of ways the current retirement system benefits high-income people. income and wealth at the expense of everyday working Australians,” Senator McKim said.
Labour’s policy of levying a 30 per cent tax on super profits over $3 million is so radical that it includes a tax on “unrealized gains”.
This would see self-managed super funds tax assets that someone still owned before they had sold them, a departure from normal tax practices.
No other country in the world has applied this policy to retirement savings and could see self-managed funds forced to sell assets such as property or farms to avoid higher taxes.
The last time Labor was forced to form a minority government with the Greens, in 2010, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard capitulated and introduced a carbon tax, despite promising not to do so during the campaign.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has signaled that Labor is unwilling to negotiate with the left-wing minor party over its plan to double contribution tax on retirement balances over $3 million to 30 per cent (pictured foreground with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese).
Former independent MP Tony Windsor, who backed Labor in 2010 to form a minority government, said a hung parliament in the lower house was the most likely outcome of the next election, scheduled for May next year.
“It will probably be a minority government,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“Chances are, anything could happen.”
Windsor said Green and Teal MPs would likely demand some political concessions in a hung parliament, most likely from a minority Labor government.
“They will have a certain degree of power,” he said.
‘There is no doubt that the crossbench will have some influence; In my opinion, it will probably be a good thing.
“You can’t just ram a silly idea through the House because it’s kind of a wedge against the others.”
Teal independent Allegra Spender, who opposes taxing unrealized profits, has signaled she is open to forming a minority government with the Coalition led by Peter Dutton.
Teal independent Allegra Spender, who opposes taxing unrealized profits, has signaled she is open to forming a minority with the Peter Dutton-led Coalition.
“I strongly oppose the imposition of taxes on unrealized profits, which is why I am proposing a series of amendments,” he said in October.
“While I am open to considering taxing large super balances, I think taxing unrealized gains is extremely problematic.”
Fellow independents such as Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel, Zali Steggall, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney represent wealthy electorates who would oppose the super tax takeover, while super tax critic Kylea Tink’s northern Sydney electorate has been abolished .
Sportsbet now has the Coalition as favorites for the next election, with odds of $1.72 compared to $2.10 for Labor.
But the Liberal and National parties need to win 18 seats to have a chance of having the 76 seats needed to form a majority government, following electoral redistributions that have reduced the number of lower house seats to 150.
A Newspoll poll conducted in early November showed a three per cent swing against Labor after preferences, which would mean the loss of seven seats, reducing its tally to 70 seats.
Labor could form a government with four Greens MPs, assuming they are all re-elected, plus left-wing independent Andrew Wilkie and one Teal MP.
The Coalition’s number of seats would only increase to 65, making its task of coming to power more difficult.
I wouldn’t be able to a minority government and block Labor and the Greens, even if he had the support of the six re-elected Teal Party MPs and the Conservative independents. Bob Katter, Dai Le, Rebekha Sharkie and Andrew Gee.