With the Abbottalypse’s “captain’s call” not to reform superannuation well and truly in the rear view mirror, the prospect of achieving genuine reform of Australia’s inequitable and inefficient superannuation system is suddenly looking bright.
Already, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accepted that Australia must examine the “very substantial” concessions on superannuation, directing Treasurer Scott Morrison to begin a process of reform. From The Australian:
Scott Morrison confirmed the government had started a process to consider the superannuation tax breaks…
The remarks clear the way for the government to take a reform proposal to the next election after canvassing the options in a tax white paper due by the end of the year…
Bill Shorten asked Mr Turnbull in parliament yesterday to support a Labor proposal to raise $14bn in extra taxes over the next decade by scaling back the tax breaks — an idea Mr Abbott had rejected just months ago.
Mr Turnbull left room to adopt the proposal or embrace a similar measure, saying the Opposition Leader was right to say there were “very substantial tax concessions” associated with super.
“All of this is connected with the taxation system itself, the taxation on income and other elements in the economy. And also it’s connected with the transfer system,” Mr Turnbull said.
“All of these matters are under consideration by the government…”
As noted yesterday, the Treasury’s “Tax White Paper” review has received a large number of submissions supporting reform to Australia’s superannuation concessions.
We also know that the Australian Greens are on board, which would make it easy to push reform through the upper house.
This makes superannuation reform both a political and policy winner for Prime Minister Turnbull, who can use it to simultaneously wash off the Abbottalyptic stain of “unfairness” that tainted the Coalition, achieve a large dividend in Budget repair, and also outflank Labor.
