Labor targets Super concessions for the very rich

It's not much but at least it's a big step in the right direction. Labor invented Australia's Superannuation scheme under the Hawke gov. The Lieberals however have done nothing but attack it, each time when coming to office they pull bits and pieces off it. Howard canned the increase from 9% to 12% soon after defeating Keating for example, costing (on figures back then) about $100,000 for someone starting in the workforce upon their retirement. Keating's L.A.W. tax cuts that he instead wanted to funnel into retirement savings.

Anyway, ACOSS has already been saying that the very well off shouldn't be getting all these tax breaks on their Super that are far more than the rest of the population. Abbott was too chicken shit to target these few people getting those lurks, instead deciding for a blanket cut to pensions across the board. To the tune of $80 a week after ten years, by changing the indexation rate. Something demonstrably unfair for people like me who need every cent of that pension. 

Shorten has obviously listened to the likes of ACOSS and has decided instead on a platform of fairness. This is a no brainer, and IMO not at all "risky" as some are saying. Australians like fairness, which is why Abbott is so on the nose after last years budget disaster. I think Labor is on a winner here.

It's also smart politics. He can now take this policy to Abbott and give bipartisan support to implement it. Abbott will be loath to do so for a number of reasons, not the least of them being another broken promise. He likely won't do it, and be portrayed and highlighted by Shorten as someone against the Australian culture of fairness. Abbott's been snookered. 

Bill Shorten however, believes these are few in number, wagering that the vast majority of voters regard generous tax concessions for the genuinely wealthy, as unfair – especially in light of the government's alternative plan to erode the age pension from 2017 through lower indexation. Self-evidently, the poor have no excess income with which to take advantage of better tax rates. 

It's an assessment Shorten arrived at after Joe Hockey's first budget, and has parlayed effectively ever since. 

Labor's market research supports the conclusion, with the word "budget" becoming a negative term for many voters, thus emboldening Shorten to press the advantage and go more directly after the rich. Even that comes with risks, with critics already noting the class envy aspects of Labor's approach. 

"Everyone knows you can't sustain these mega concessions when in fact what we have got to do is make sure that the great bulk of Australians get to a comfortable level of retirement," Shorten said. 

"It's just a matter of what are your priorities. We're saying to Tony Abbott, there is a better way of then cutting the pensions for fixed income recipients, we're saying let's look at this very small group who receive a high degree of taxpayer-funded largesse." 

Yet the proposed changes make sense. The whole point of tax concessions on superannuation is to encourage ordinary people to save for retirement, thereby taking pressure off the age pension. It was not intended as a device to be used by those with large surpluses of disposable income to park that wealth and therein avoid the normal income marginal rate. more