Now The Election Is Decided, It's Time To Look At Superannuation Again
Prior to the election, you told us that proposed changes to Superannuation where of real concern. Many of our members weren't happy with any government touching their Super and felt that the "goalposts keep changing".
Channel 9's 60 Minutes program looked at the issue (watch here) this week and today The Australian reports that the Prime Minister now needs to listen to voters concerns about the issue.
From Sid Maher and Sarah Martin of The Australian -
Malcolm Turnbull faces party pressure to review controversial superannuation changes amid fresh Treasury warnings about the need for budget savings after yesterday claiming election victory with an expected wafer-thin majority.
With his ministry to be sworn in next week, the Prime Minister faces immediate challenges, with the Nationals entitled to push for an extra cabinet position and key backbenchers calling for changes to the government’s $500,000 cap on concessional superannuation contributions to demonstrate the government is listening to voters.
The pressure for a review of the unpopular superannuation changes comes as Scott Morrison prepares for Treasury briefings expected to reinforce the need to deliver savings contained in the May budget and push harder to break the deadlock over measures stalled in the Senate.
The International Monetary Fund’s global economic update in two weeks is expected to underline economic challenges facing the nation, downgrading estimates of global growth to the weakest level since 2008-09.
In claiming victory, Mr Turnbull said he would seek consensus from Labor and independent MPs on measures that would help secure Australia’s future even as the Opposition Leader said Labor would “stick to our guns’’ on Medicare, schools and jobs.
Mr Turnbull said voters expected the parliament to work together “to deliver good government, wise legislation, the sound policies that will secure Australia’s future. That’s my commitment.’’
Mr Shorten promised “where there is common ground, we will work very hard to accomplish it. I understand that we have an opportunity here, the Australian people expect all sides of politics to work in the national interest’’.
He warned the government to dump any cuts to Medicare and reconsider some of its changes to superannuation. Both leaders said they would examine electronic voting, with Mr Shorten declaring “we can’t have our nation drift for eight days after an election’’.
Mr Turnbull said he had been a long-time advocate for electronic voting and flagged tighter regulation of “robocalls’’ and political text messages that are currently unregulated.
Declaring it “vital” that the new parliament works, Mr Turnbull said: “We need to ensure that we have a strong economy in the years ahead. We need to ensure that we maintain a successful transition from an economy fuelled up by the mining construction boom to one that is more diverse.
Emboldened conservative MPs are also preparing to demand Mr Turnbull reopen the government’s superannuation policy changes and scrap the $540 million backpacker tax. Some MPs say a “full review of super” is needed following a backlash by Liberal Party members about the budget changes that were taken to the election but never endorsed by the partyroom, while others say the $500,000 cap on concessional contributions must be scrapped.
During the election campaign, the Treasurer said the party was committed to the $5.6 billion package of reforms, but “unintended consequences” would be considered as legislation was prepared.
Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz, who has criticised the super changes for contributing to a lack of volunteers at polling booths, said the policy had damaged the Coalition’s standing among its core constituency.
He said the Treasurer and Prime Minister needed to demonstrate that the Liberal Party was listening to voters. “They would be well advised to listen to what the partyroom brings back as a result of the election,” Senator Abetz told The Australian. “While we have won the election and won a mandate, I think it would be very wise of us to say to the Australian people, and particularly our core base, that we understand there has been some negative reaction to some of our proposals, and we are listening and learning and changes need to be made.”
Other Liberals said conservatives should be more concerned with managing debt and deficit, and delivering on the election promises included in the budget.
A spokesman for the Treasurer said the measure accounted for more than $500m to support the reduction in the budget deficit. “The 2016 budget development process was the same process as employed in budgets previous and the budget was also presented to the partyroom in the usual way. The budget remains the government’s policy,” he said.
The Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, Alex Hawke, agreed the government needed to focus on budget repair. “Changes to high-end superannuation are broadly accepted by all sections of the community, and the government was right to propose them,” he told The Australian.
