Robert Gottlebsen (“Gotti”) has truly drunk the Kool Aid today, blaming the upcoming superannuation reforms on further inflating housing values (which are just assumed). From The Australian:
…a set of top public servant advisers, who having watched on as their own superannuation nests were feathered, are advising on the destruction of parts of superannuation in the private sector that is contributing to the latest house price rise…
I cannot recall our nation being faced with such dangers… Inevitably another housing boom, albeit selective, on top of the one we have just had, will end in grief…
In the budget Treasurer Scott Morrison, in effect, eliminated substantial tax-paid contributions to superannuation as a savings pillar. So now, whereas there were three savings pillars, we are now down to two — the family home and negative gearing…
Many Australians have now decided that, with superannuation out, the best way to save, tax efficiently, is via the family home… They are expanding their existing homes and buying bigger ones.
The family home is a magnificent tax shelter because there are no capital gains on the sale and it does not reduce the government pension…
Thanks to what Scott Morrison and his feathered public servant advisers have done to private sector superannuation, the family home is being turned into a “superannuation fund” for many parts of the society.
Instead of conflating the issue and using rising house prices as an excuse for jettisoning sensible reforms to superannuation, why doesn’t Gotti instead explicitly support:
- Labor’s reforms to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount;
- Tighter means testing of the Aged Pension by including one’s principal place of residence in the assets test, accompanied by an expansion of the Government’s Pension Loans Scheme (explained here); and
- Tighter restrictions on foreign buyers (which Gotti himself admits has powered the Sydney and Melbourne markets)?
Reforms to the above areas would clearly dampen house price growth, by removing housing’s status as a preferred destination for tax-effective saving, while saving the Budget significant money.
Of course, the hidden objective of Gotti’s ranting is not to achieve genuine and equitable Budget reform, which spreads the burden across the community (and across generations). But rather to derail superannuation reform and protect the tax-free status of his dying reader’s retirement savings.
