Anthony Albanese will be exempt from his own superannuation tax rise when he finally retires to live in his $4.3 million clifftop mansion, like a handful of Australia’s top politicians.
The government wants Australians with more than $3 million in super savings to see their contribution tax rate double to 30 per cent, up from 15 per cent.
The proposed change to the country’s retirement savings appeared to be on shaky ground last night as Treasurer Jim Chalmers signaled his unwillingness to strike a deal with the Greens in the Senate.
But if Labour’s bill is passed, a handful of the country’s top politicians will not be affected when they finally leave politics, in a move that has sparked a furious reaction from the opposition, which says the bill treats politicians and judges differently to other Australian workers. .
Politicians elected before 2004, such as the Prime Minister, are exempt from Labour’s 2023 pension concessions bill and other more targeted measures.
This is because it only covers Australians whose retirement savings are included in an accumulated retirement savings plan, where super balances are determined by the performance of a fund.
MPs elected before October 2004 were covered by a defined benefit scheme, whereby they received a guaranteed payment after leaving politics based on their time in Parliament.
This includes Mr Albanese, who was first elected as the member for Sydney’s inner west by Grayndler in 1996.
He would be one of the few MPs to escape being affected by this bill, designed to target the 0.5 per cent of super savers or 80,000 people.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton and his Liberal deputy Sussan Ley, Labor cabinet ministers Catherine King and Penny Wong, and government MPs Brendan O’Connor and Maria Vamvakinou would also be exempt because they were elected by first time in 2001.
Anthony Albanese’s proposed super changes are so hypocritical they won’t affect him personally (pictured right with fiancee Jodie Haydon)
They can also access their super once they turn 55.
Independent Bob Katter was first elected in 1993 and would also be exempt from the super changes proposed by the Labor Party.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, who was first elected in 2013, said Labour’s proposed super tax rise would leave people like Albanese untouched.
“Worse still, this regime proposes a different approach for a farmer or small business owner than for a public official, judge or politician,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Those like the Prime Minister, who are lucky enough to have a defined benefit scheme, will enjoy deferred payments and tax rates set entirely by regulation, not legislation.
‘This is a wealth tax, plain and simple. But the Prime Minister exempted himself.
“Everyone else faces an annual non-indexed tax on unrealized capital gains.”
In a radical move, Labor is proposing to tax self-managed super funds on assets above the $3 million threshold before they are sold, without indexation for inflation.
The government wants Australians with more than $3 million in super savings to see their contribution tax rate double to 30 per cent, up from 15 per cent (pictured, Gold Coast students).
This is a radical departure from the usual tax practice of taxing someone once they have sold their assets and not before.
No other country has applied an unrealized gains tax to retirement savings, and European nations have tried that approach to wealth, but not to a great degree.
This policy would affect self-managed super funds that own assets such as farms, which can be difficult to sell or split up.
Teal MP Allegra Spender opposed the super unrealized profits tax and her independent colleague David Pocock hinted she would block the Senate bill on the issue.
The Greens also oppose the super bill, but only because they want the $3 million threshold lowered to $1.9 million.
Labor’s bill faces defeat in the Senate and Dr Chalmers indicated on Tuesday he was unlikely to reach a compromise with the Greens, which was opposed by leading independents and the Coalition.
“The Greens want to vote against fairer taxes for people with millions of survivors,” he said.
“They shouldn’t need us to sweeten the deal to do the right thing.”
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, who was first elected in 2013, said Labour’s proposed super tax rise would leave people like Albanese untouched.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, first elected in 2019, raised the issue of the prime minister getting an exemption in May.
“One of my favorite exemptions from the super tax is the exemption that Labor ministers have granted themselves from the application of a new super tax,” he told the Senate.
‘The new super tax will not apply to Mr O’Connor, it will not apply to Mrs King, it will not apply to Senator Wong and it will not apply to the Prime Minister.
“It is a shocking case of hypocrisy that the Australian people hate politicians who are willing to impose rules for everyone but themselves.
“It is a disgusting display of hypocrisy, something that should not surprise us.”
The Coalition raised this issue in a dissenting report on Labor’s proposed super changes that now face defeat in the Senate.
“Surprisingly, this bill, as it stands, will not apply to Mr. Albanese himself,” he said in a report published in May.
‘This Bill only applies to those on accrual schemes, and as Mr Albanese is on the former parliamentary defined benefit scheme, the alleged method of calculating the Prime Minister’s tax liability will be left to delegated legislation.
“The Prime Minister is therefore asking Parliament to vote on a tax bill which, in itself, will not apply to him.”
But parliamentarians elected since October 2004 receive a supplementary salary of 15.4 percent, which is more than the 11.5 percent of employer contributions for everyone else.
Members of Parliament now have a base salary of $233,660.
Those elected before 2004 fell under the old Parliamentary Contribution Pension Scheme, which was dismantled for new MPs when then Liberal Prime Minister John Howard bowed to pressure from then Labor leader Mark Latham.
Labour’s super tax rise exemption, for MPs elected before 2004, would benefit Albanese once he retired from politics and lived in his new $4.3 million clifftop home in Copacabana, on the New South Wales Central Coast, with his fiancée Jodie Haydon.
This would benefit Albanese once he retired from politics and lived in his $4.3 million clifftop home in Copacabana, on the New South Wales Central Coast, with his fiancée Jodie Haydon.