Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System) Bill 2026, shows that this country has an absolute mountain to climb when it comes to making our tax system fairer, especially for young working people, who are getting smashed while the richest of the rich have a smorgasbord of tax minimisation options to choose from. The 10 richest super funds in Australia have an average balance of $423 million each. Clearly, superannuation is being used as a tax shelter, and over its 32 years compulsory super has strayed far from its original purpose of providing working people with a dignified, comfortable retirement. This bill is merely tinkering at the edges of this mountainous system. It will not stop superannuation being used for tax and estate planning, and it will not restore super to its purpose of supporting hardworking people in retirement.

Under the changes in this tax bill the 10 richest super funds, each with $423 million in their account, will still face a lower tax rate when they sell shares or investment properties than every single full-time worker in Australia. Even a full-time worker on the minimum wage will pay 30c in every dollar earned while these super funds, each with $423 million in their account, will pay 27c on every extra dollar their super fund earns from capital gains. Our tax system is turbocharging intergenerational inequality, and this bill will not meaningfully change the trajectory that we're on. A super account with $5 million in it will only face a tax rate of 14 per cent on capital gains under this bill while a bartender or a nurse that works part time and earns $20,000 a year faces a tax rate of 16c for every dollar earned.

If you think this new tax system is bad, here's the painful bit: this bill is an improvement. Right now, that $5 million account or an account with $423 million in it, enjoys an effective tax rate of 10 per cent on capital gains. This is a difficult proposition. The tax change is a tiny step forward, but is wholly, almost laughably inadequate to deal with economic unfairness in our tax system. The 10 richest Australians will still pay a lower rate of tax than the nearly three million Australians on the minimum wage. No wonder there's such frustration out in the community, and we've heard it in my electorate where people are working harder but falling behind while they see others already with wealth racing further ahead.

While the Greens will be supporting this super change in the House, we're reserving our position in the Senate. I want to make an important distinction here, because this watered-down super tax was announced alongside a long-overdue increase in the low-income super tax offset. The Greens wholeheartedly support this part of the changes, two-thirds of which will flow to women's retirement.

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