Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I grew up with my father telling me that, if I worked hard, I'd get ahead—get ahead to raise a family; get ahead to have a good life when I got older—and that's why today I'm speaking on the intended superannuation changes that Labor are going to try and bring in. We call it a tax against getting ahead, a tax on aspiration, because what they're trying to do is take your money, the money that you have earned and worked hard for and have put into your superannuation so that you can have an easier life as you get older. Those intended changes are increases in taxes over $3 million, but the punch here is that the tax is on unrealised capital gains. I'll say that again: the punch here is a tax on unrealised capital gains.

Some people might be thinking, 'Well, $3 million will never apply to me.' Let me talk about the average person who will be affected by this. They are our people. They're our farmers, our primary producers and small-business owners who, in the past, the government has said to them: 'You can do this; you can put your farm in your superannuation fund or your business, your commercial property, in your superannuation fund. You're allowed to do that.' In fact, they were encouraged to do that. But now the government's moving those goalposts. Why? It's because of the budget, because we're seeing a decade of deficits, and they see an easy grab.

Those farmers who have put their properties into their self-managed superfunds, in some years, will make a loss. I'll give you an example. In my electorate of Cowper, only recently we saw devastating floods. Those floods will take 18 months to two years for those farmers to get back on their feet, and, whilst the government hands out $75,000 for them to fix a few fences, they're in fact paying $200,000 to $400,000 in infrastructure damage, fixing that infrastructure and then not making any profit over the next two years. The government is intending to turn around and say to them: 'Well, your property has just increased by $500,000 over the $3 million cap. We are now going to tax that.' And the farmer says: 'I'm sorry. I don't have that money because my property was damaged and I haven't made any income over the last few years, so what am I to do?' And, without a doubt, the taxman will say, 'You must sell your property.'

Similarly, with business owners, again in my electorate and down the line, they're inundated with flood, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair their commercial property, and they will then have to pay this unrealised capital gain. It is a first, and it is a first that we should not be proud of—to break the convention of basic 101 tax where we're taxing those unrealised capital gains. I say to young people out there who may be listening and thinking, 'Well, that won't apply to me,' it will, because not only are they taxing unrealised capital gains; they are not indexing the amount. By the time you finish your working life, in 45 or 50 years, you will be caught up among the almost eight million Australians who will be paying unrealised capital gains—a tax on a tax—when you're retiring. That is why the coalition will always fight for our people and against unfair taxes.

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