PM holds line on super changes
The Government is continuing to hold the line on its Budget superannuation changes, with Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, arguing that their overall effect would be to inject more fairness into the system.
Speaking in Adelaide, the Prime Minister said he believed the Budget changes made the superannuation fairer and more sustainable.
"They make it fairer for people on low incomes. They give greater opportunity for women in particular who have been out of the workforce to catch up and make larger concessional contributions after they return to work," he said.
"They enable independent contractors who currently can't contribute in the same basis as employees, to do so, and they allow older Australians who are older than 65 and younger than 75 who currently can't contribute concessionaly to super to do so because so many of them are working."
The Prime Minister acknowledged that some people on higher incomes with higher account balances would be impacted, but maintained the Government's line that this equated to only around four per cent.
"Yes it is true that some people around four per cent, who are either on very high incomes or have very large super balances will not have as generous a tax concession as they used to have," he said, claiming that this represented "a tiny fraction of the total population".
"I might remind you, they will pay 15 per cent tax on the earnings from, in effect, that part of their superannuation over the $1.6 million," Turnbull said. Fifteen per cent is a lower rate of tax than the marginal rate that a kid stacking shelves at Woolies pays."
"Let's get real. Super remains enormously generous. It is a very advantaged, tax advantage system for everyone that participates in it. For those on high incomes and very large super balances it remains very generous."
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