Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. Will the Assistant Treasurer please update the House on how the coalition government is assisting all Australians to build their wealth and to provide for their retirement?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Petrie for his question and acknowledge his strong contribution in this place to protecting the savings of hardworking Australians. Indeed, Australians are hardworking and they are aspirational, and this government stands ready to assist them to build their savings and to prepare for retirement. That is why we have committed to no unexpected or adverse changes to superannuation in this term of office. This is why we have repaired the unclaimed moneys regime, taking it back from three years to seven years. And that is why we support negative gearing.

But I am asked: are there any challenges to this approach? The greatest challenge comes from those opposite, because just yesterday we heard that the Leader of the Opposition did not even know his superannuation policy, and now we know that Labor is planning to take an axe to negative gearing. The member for McMahon was asked on the 7.30 program about negative gearing and he said:

… any responsible opposition would be considering a range of measures.

…   …   …

… any changes we took to negative gearing would be taken to the next election

But then the Leader of the Opposition himself let the cat out of the bag in an interview with Jon Faine—that famous interview—when he said, 'Everybody is somebody,' and so forth. But he was asked about negative gearing in that interview, and Jon Faine said to him, 'Isn't it electorally poisonous to touch it?' To that the Leader of the Opposition's simple reply was 'no'. The Leader of the Opposition, when he used to be the national secretary of the AWU, when he used to tell us what he really thought, said:

… higher income earners are availing themselves of negative gearing … and the endless variety of new avoidance schemes.

There we have it: the Leader of the Opposition is saying to the nearly 1.3 million Australians who access negative gearing, including 61,000 teachers and child carers, 42,000 nurses, 15,000 transport workers and 46,000 sales assistants that they are engaged in avoidance schemes. The Leader of the Opposition is saying, as the Prime Minister said, negative gearing is tax dodging. He is supported by the shadow Assistant Treasurer, who wrote an article in The Australian some time ago calling for the abolition of negative gearing. This is what the shadow assistant Treasurer said, 'We assume that $2 billion could be saved by its abolition.'

There we have it: the hard-earned savings of ordinary Australians cannot be trusted with the Leader of the Opposition. He has called superannuation a legalised tax haven. He is now calling negative gearing an avoidance scheme. And we know that the hard-earned savings of ordinary Australians will eventually become Bill Shorten's own savings. Shame on Labor.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.