Grattan: Why super reform must succeed

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By Leith van Onselen

The Grattan Institute has released a working paper, entitled A better super system: assessing the 2016 tax reforms, which argues that winding-back superannuation concessions is the “acid test” of Australia’s political system and should be “one of the first items of business in the current Parliament”.

Implementing the Coalition’s reforms announced in the May Budget would “create a fairer superannuation system more aligned to its purpose of providing income to supplement the Age Pension” by trimming “overly generous super tax breaks enjoyed by the top 20 per cent of income earners”. They would affect only around “4 per cent of superannuants, almost all with enough income and assets to prevent them from ever qualifying for a part Age Pension”, while saving the Federal Budget some “$800 million a year”.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.