Community sector organisations are urging the Prime Minister to stand firm on the government’s commitment to deliver the ‘fairer’ superannuation system announced in the 2016 Budget.
The seniors peak body COTA Australia and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) signed a joint letter to the Prime Minister, concerned that good policy was under threat from pressure being applied by a small number of adversely effected individuals.
COTA recently surveyed its membership election panel and 87 per cent agreed that ‘the current tax concessions on superannuation contribution favour the well-off’.
The letter calls on the government to hold firm on key features of its Budget superannuation reforms.
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie said measures needed to be put in place to ensure superannuation was used as is was originally intended.
“Tax breaks for super should be about adequate retirement incomes and reducing reliance on pensions, not wealth accumulation for people already well off. Every dollar lost to public revenue from badly designed tax breaks is a dollar less for health and care services for an ageing population,” Goldie said.
“While ACOSS does not support all of the Budget super proposals, they, along with changes proposed by Labor and the Greens, would curb the worst excesses of ‘high-end’ super tax breaks and reduce the unfair tax penalties that face low income earners saving for retirement. It should be possible for the parties to least agree on these kinds of modest changes to make superannuation more fit for purpose.”
Ian Yates CE of COTA Australia said many other industry, academic and consumer advocates, had long been calling for an end to overly generous tax concessions.
“It would be a sad reflection on the state of the Australian politics if good policy, which makes our superannuation system more equitable and sustainable, were overturned because of pressure from the self-interested,” Yates said.