Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

HOWARTH () (): Labor members opposite say that Labor built super and they'll always protect it. They love to talk about Paul Keating as 'the king of super' and that Labor are 'kings of super'. The problem is that that's all, until you've got too much of it—then they want to come after your money! On 2 May 2022, the then Leader of the Opposition Albanese said, 'We've said we have no intention to make any super changes.' This is important, because it goes to character. He also said that life would be cheaper under Labor. He also said that he would lower electricity by $275—not once but 97 times! He also said at the Labor campaign launch in 2022 that they would lower mortgages. We've had only 12 interest rate rises since then! In the same month, he said, 'We have no intention to make any super changes.' He didn't just say 'some changes'. Yet earlier this year, less than 12 months after making that promise, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have announced that they're now making the very changes to super they said they wouldn't make. They're not just increasing taxes a little bit; they're doubling the tax rate if you've got too much money in super.

That's the reality of it. That is what they're doing. The facts are that a 20-year-old today—my eldest son is 20 right now—earning an average wage throughout their life will have a superannuation balance higher than $3 million when they're in their late 60s, meaning they will be hit hard by the doubling of Labor's superannuation taxes. That's a fact. Today Labor once again is trying to pull a con job on the Australian people. It's simply misleading to imply that this is a tax for the top end of town and that it won't affect young people in their late teens or early 20s today.

We all know that a dollar today is not what it'll be worth in 10, 15, 20 or 30 years time. This policy is not indexed, and the previous coalition speaker rightfully said that this tax is a tax on unrealised capital gains. You won't even have to be making money from the asset. They say housing goes up every 10 years. If you've got a house in Sydney or Melbourne and it's worth $1½ million today, it's probably going to be worth $3 million in 10 years time. What's it going to be worth in 20 or 25 years time? You don't even have to sell it. They're going to tax you 30 per cent on the unrealised capital gains. That's the Albanese government. They go on about super. The member opposite has talked about young people. Well, the First Home Super Saver Scheme is one of the best ways for young people to save for a house deposit right now. They can save $10,000—they can salary sacrifice into their super account—and, rather than being taxed at 32½ per cent on every dollar over $45,000, they're taxed at 15 per cent. The First Home Super Saver Scheme that the previous coalition government put in place is a great scheme for young people. All members should be telling young people about it.

But this mob, the Labor Party, voted against it at the time: 'Oh no, the sky is going to fall in and we can't vote for that.' They've left it in place. Go to the front of my website, lukehowarth.com.au, and the first icon there is the First Home Super Saver Scheme. You can do it if you're in a Labor member's seat as well. If you haven't bought a house, get into the First Home Super Saver Scheme, particularly for young people living at home. Salary sacrifice into your super, get your deposit together and then take advantage of the coalition's First Home Guarantee, where you can get into the housing market with a five per cent deposit, and we'll pay the mortgage insurance. Labor don't want to talk about homeownership. They voted against the First Home Super Saver Scheme, and now the Leader of the Opposition is putting forward a policy that we'll take to the 2025 election, allowing super employer contribution to be accessed with a home deposit as well to help more young people—Gen Ys and Gen Zs—get into the housing market. Once again, this mob, the Labor Party, say the sky is going to fall in. The reality is that it's not, because most people will stay in a house for 10 years. They sell their house with a capital gain and they put the deposit back in, and a share of the capital gain. This mob is the Chicken Little mob—not us. The Albanese government need to learn to keep their election promises, because this is nothing short of another broken Labor promise.

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