6 years ago
BAD SANTA SLOMO’S SAD AND MISLEADING SCARE CAMPAIGN
CHRIS BOWEN MP
Scott Morrison isn’t good or bad Santa, he’s just not very good at his job.
Mr Morrison has spent the last four weeks trying to argue Labor’s dividend imputation reform policy was some sort of sweet heart deal for industry funds but now in a complete reversal, is arguing that Labor’s policy targets APRA regulated funds including industry funds.
There’s absolutely nothing new or salacious about today’s story on the front page of The Australian. We’re all well aware that ‘Treasury analysis’ is code for a piece of paper put together in Scott Morrison’s office and so it is with today’s story.
The Treasurer has had a bad run relying on dodgy analysis and modelling for his silly scare campaigns, so it’s particularly amusing to see he’s now commissioning his analysis and modelling ‘in-house’ – that is, not from Treasury, but from his own office.
Labor was very clear and upfront from the start of the impacts of the policy and how cash refunds have been distributed across super funds and individuals.
This is a cut and paste from the original policy factsheet:
Distributional analysis from the PBO shows that (for the 2014-15 year):
• 90% of all cash refunds to superannuation funds accrued to SMSFs (just 10% go to APRA regulated funds) despite SMSFs accounting for less than 10% of all superannuation members in Australia
Seeking to aggregate small APRA regulated funds – many of whom have fewer than five members with high average balances – with larger retail or industry funds is absolutely meaningless.
The overwhelming majority of members of retail and industry funds are completely unaffected by Labor’s reforms.
The CEO of Industry Super Australia has said on Labor’s dividend imputation policy reforms:
“The proposal by the Australian Labor Party to stop refunding imputation credits even where no tax has been paid by an investor will have little or no impact on the super of most Australians…”
“Super funds where most Australians have their retirement savings will be largely unaffected by this proposal because the imputation credits are exhausted offsetting tax liabilities of the fund.”
The fundamental issue is that Australia can no longer afford to give out cash refunds – it is projected to cost the Budget up to $8 billion a year in the next 10 years.
It’s no surprise that Mr Morrison is so focused on Labor’s tax policies, because he’s got no tax reform of his own to talk about, just a $65 billion big business hand out.
And the Turnbull Government continues to push an increase in income tax for seven millions working and middle income Australians that would see someone earning $70,000 a year pay an additional $350 year in tax.