Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer. Would the minister outline to the House how Australians will benefit from the superannuation reforms coming into effect on 1 July this year? Are there any threats to these retirement savings?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member very much for his question and for his commitment to older Australians—people who are saving for their retirements to make sure that they can lead a fantastic retirement and benefit their children as well into the future. The Australian people know that the Labor Party stands for nothing but two things. One is that they are here to represent only the interests of the union movement in this country. The second is that they know that the Australian Labor Party is full of economic idiots.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There’s one, standing with his back to us!

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Swan is one. As the Treasurer says, he stands up with his back to the coalition on a regular basis. He represents the unions in this place. He shows arrogance not just in here but outside on the doors every morning, firing the bullets for the Leader of the Opposition. He is the mud-thrower from the ALP and he is a danger to the future economy in this country.

When you talk about Labor and you talk about the Labor threat to the future of this economy, look no further than superannuation. This government recently announced the abolition of the 15 per cent end tax on superannuation benefits for people over the age of 60 from 1 July this year. Why did we do that? We did that because we have a serious ageing of the population in this country. We have an ageing of the population which poses a serious threat to the future stability of the economic success of this country, and so we abolished the end tax and simplified superannuation to make it easier for people to accumulate money in their superannuation, to fund their own retirements wherever possible and to ease the burden and the stress that would otherwise be placed on the Australian economy.

I know that the ALP is coming up to a conference very shortly, and we know that it is dictated to by the union movement. We know that, in a document that has been produced by Doug Cameron, Jeff Lawrence, John Sutton, Susan Hopgood and the illustrious Stephen Jones, representing all of those collective union hacks, they are advocating for the Labor Party to ‘Restore taxation of lump sum superannuation benefits’. It goes on to say:

The recent Budget decision to remove taxation of superannuation payouts for people aged over 60 greatly aggravates unfairness and waste in the superannuation system. It is especially unjustifiable to remove taxation from lump sum benefits.

‘Restore taxation of lump sum superannuation benefits’. Right now, as we speak, people are putting money into their superannuation policies; they are putting money into superannuation before 30 June because this government has put in place a generous system. And what they do not want from the Labor Party is uncertainty on superannuation. Up until this point, they were of the view that the Labor Party supported the coalition in ending the end tax on superannuation. But what we know now is that this announcement has been made by the union movement—the bosses of the Labor Party—and the Leader of the Opposition has not refuted this claim. He has had an opportunity, as have many members of the Labor Party at recent superannuation forums, to dismiss this suggestion. They have not. And so there is great uncertainty in the superannuation market at the moment. The Leader of the Opposition must come out and refute this claim and say that Labor supports the government stance to make sure that we can protect the stability of the Australian economy as we go into the future. The greatest threat to the Australian economy remains the Australian Labor Party.