Super funds call on Senate to support super reforms
Superannuation funds have called on Labor, the Senate and the Government’s own restive backbench to pass the government’s package of super reforms.
Industry Super Australia, which represents the union-backed funds, says that the package while not perfect would create a more equitable system and would represent a reasonable trade-off of various priorities.
ISA chief executive David Whiteley said the package should be supported.
“They improve the equity of the system and while the package isn’t exactly how we would design it, it strikes a reasonable trade-off between competing priorities,” Mr Whiteley told The Australian Financial Review.
“We would expect there might be differences of opinion on individual measures within and between parties in the Parliament.
“Everyone is entitled to put forward their ideas for improvements but we would urge everyone to act in good faith and find a way to pass these important reforms. Doing nothing would be a travesty.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten last week announced that Labor would support the government making the $500,000 lifetime cap on non-concessional contributions prospective but he will not agree to backdate it by 10 years. To make up for the lost revenue, Labor would support lowering from $250,000 to $200,000 the income threshold at which a person’s contributions are taxed at 30 per cent rather than 15 per cent.
The government rejected the proposal, putting its super plans in disarray.
At the same time, the government has been fighting its own backbench which opposes backdating the $500,000 cap to 2007, claiming that makes it retrospective.
As a compromise, Treasurer Scott Morrison offered to increase the cap to $750,000 and keep it backdated. While that appears to have eased concerns, Labor opposes anything that is backdated. The Greens say a $750,000 cap is too high.
With Parliament due to start on Tuesday, Mr Turnbull made it clear yesterday the Government was still intending to seek a compromise.
“Our super package has been very well received,’’ Mr Turnbull told ABC program The Insiders.
“It’s about a $6 billion package. The only area of controversy relates to the $500,000 non-concessional lifetime cap, which is around $500 million of the $6 billion. So the vast bulk of it is broadly accepted, and we have won the arguments on that, in a very complex area.”
by Leon Gettler, August 29th 2016
