Superannuation: Treasurer Jim Chalmers grilled on broken super tax promise


Anthony Albanese has slammed the door shut on a future change to a tax break on the family home after the Treasurer failed to categorically rule it out despite being asked repeatedly.

Jim Chalmers was attempting to sell the government’s decision to lift taxes on superannuation funds that exceed a $3m threshold on Wednesday morning when he found himself in hot water.

The Treasurer was asked several times to rule out any changes to the capital gains tax exemption on the family home after new costings from his department showed it cost the budget $48bn.

“Can you guarantee no change, ever, to the capital gains tax exemption on the family home?” Sunrise host David Koch asked.

“We put out yesterday a whole bunch of numbers around all of the tax breaks in the system … We said that’s not a policy statement. It’s not a statement of intent. It’s just a Treasury summary,” Dr Chalmers responded.

“I can’t commit future governments to changes or otherwise.”

After back and forth in which the Sunrise host accused Dr Chalmers of using “weasel words”, Koch asked if the Treasurer could rule out a change while he was in the job.

“Well, it’s not my intention,” he hit back.

“I think people understand what my priorities are … there are a lot of tax breaks in the system. I think people are aware of that. And we put some numbers around that yesterday. But in doing that, we said that we want to change superannuation. It’s a modest but meaningful change.

“We inherited a trillion dollars of debt and we’ve got to try and get on top of it.”

Just minutes after the Treasurer’s morning show trainwreck, the Prime Minister hit the radio airways to mop up the mess left by his colleague.

“We are not going to impact the family home, full stop, exclamation mark because it’s a bad idea,” Mr Albanese told ABC Radio.

Data released by Treasury on Tuesday revealed the cost of the 10 largest tax expenditures – revenue forgone due to concessional tax – has hit $150bn.

Superannuation tax concessions, the data showed, would be worth more than $50bn this financial year.

After just eight days of a “national conversation” about the issue, the government rushed through a decision to lift taxes on superannuation balances of more than $3m to 30 per cent through cabinet.

That’s despite Mr Albanese ruling out any major changes to superannuation during the election and on Sunday night declaring the debate still remained “hypothetical”.

Both Dr Chalmers and Mr Albanese rejected suggestion the change of heart was a broken promise. Both men were also quick to shoot down claims The treasury statement amounted to government policy.

“It wasn’t a statement by the cabinet if you like, this was just a statement of fact,” Mr Albanese said.

“What we’ve done is release more information. It’s more honest than it’s been in the past.”

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