Aaron Hammond

4 May 2019 – Due to an inadvertent transposition, the quotes in this document do not match the proper source. We have corrected the document. The update can be found here:

Scott Morrison’s 12 tax-free superannuation promises : May to June 2015 – Updated 4 May 2019

3AW – 19 June 2015

MINISTER MORRISON: Well we do want to encourage everyone … to be saving for their retirement and particularly when you are drawing down on that when you are retired we don’t want to tax you like Chris Bowen does.

2GB – 25 May 2015

My own view is that the superannuation system, for example, meant I don’t want to tax people more when they’re basically investing for their own future… That’s why I think Chris Bowen’s idea, …of …taxing superannuation incomes, is a bad idea, I don’t support it…

Question Time – 25 May 2015

And when they get into their retirement, we are going to make sure that their hard-earned savings in their superannuation will not be the subject of the tax slug that those opposite want to impose, … Those opposite see it as a tax nest—a tax nest for those to plunder.

The shadow minister earlier referred to ‘trousering’. The ‘trouser bandit’ sits over there because he, together with the shadow Treasurer, wants to come after the hard-earned superannuation savings…

What we will do for them is: we will not tax them like the ‘trouser bandit’ opposite.

3AW – 18 May 2015

It’s the Labor Party who wants to tax superannuation, not the Liberal Party, particularly the incomes of superannuants and I think that’s a fairly stark contrast that’s emerging.

Doorstop – 8 May 2015

The Government has made it crystal clear that we have no interest in increasing taxes on superannuation either now or in the future.

… unlike Labor, we are not coming after people’s superannuation…

Press Conference – 7 May 2015

MINISTER MORRISON: What we are not going to do is we are not going to tax those savings, like Bill Shorten wants to do. That is the difference, we will not tax your super, Bill Shorten will.

MINISTER MORRISON: Yes, and there are other taxation arraignments that apply to superannuation already and we are not going to increase those taxes as the Labor Party does and nothing we have done with the Greens has in any way changed the Government’s position on not taxing your super. We will not tax your super.

ABC AM – 5 May 2015

…what is not fair is if you save for your retirement and you create yourself a superannuation nest egg and the Government then comes along and taxes that income; which is what Labor are proposing to do.

ABC RN – 5 May 2015

We don’t think that people who have done that should be punished with higher taxes, Bill Shorten does, and so does Chris Bowen and I think that’s a stark difference between the Government and the Opposition on these issues.

3AW – 1 May 2015

The Government does not support Labor’s proposal to tax superannuants more on the income they have generated for their retirement.

Source:

Prepared and edited by Save Our Super from:

Labor media release:

CHRIS BOWEN MP

JIM CHALMERS MP

WEDNESDAY, 20 APRIL 2016

Initially, I viewed, through the narrow prism of my own self-interest, some of the Government’s and Opposition’s proposed changes to the superannuation system. I, and many people like me, will shortly retire and rely, in our retirement almost entirely, if not exclusively, on our superannuation savings built up over many years.

However, my self-interest was quickly overwhelmed by a deep feeling of anger and dismay at what I saw as a breach of trust by the Government.

Over many years, we did what the Government wanted and encouraged us to do with our superannuation savings. We accepted and complied with the superannuation rules which the Government made. We put our savings into superannuation in preference to many other choices which were open to us.

Now the Government, without any notice or consultation with us, proposes to penalise us for the decisions we made at their behest.

On any view, that is manifestly unfair and unreasonable.  

I discovered that I was not alone in that feeling. It caused me to form Save Our Super in May 2016. I’ve since discovered that the feeling I felt is uniformly felt by others affected by the proposed Government changes.

It has cost me time, money and lack of sleep to establish Save Our Super. I could have simply shrugged my shoulders and accepted the proposed changes. I could have simply sought good professional advice, paid for it and then gone quietly into retirement, enjoying my other interests and more time with our children and grandchildren. However, the Government’s breach of trust was too important to ignore.

Millions of working Australians are effectively compelled by the Compulsory Superannuation Scheme to put their hard-earned savings into the Government-mandated superannuation system.

They trust, as they must, that every Government of the day will treat them reasonably and fairly when changes are to be made to the Australian superannuation system.

They trust, as they must, that when the Government says, as Scott Morrison said in May 2015, “[t]he Government has made it crystal clear that we have no interest in increasing taxes on superannuation either now or in the future. … unlike Labor, we are not coming after people’s superannuation…” that those promises will be kept and honoured. That their compulsory superannuation savings, whatever the amount, will be respected, and not be subject to the possibility of being depleted by deliberate government action.  

But they, unlike me and some others like me, unfortunately do not have the knowledge, skills, time, contacts, influence, and resources to do anything about it if a government breaches their trust.

We do.

I, and some people like me, want to ensure that some of the proposed superannuation changes are grandfathered, if those changes significantly affect Australians who, encouraged by  government, have relied on, and acted on the then rules of the day. Australians should not be penalised for having so acted, when a government wants to change the rules later.

That is our modest goal. But that goal, if achieved, will create a precedent which will benefit millions of working Australians, now and in the future. Not only me and people like me.

Jack Hammond QC

Melbourne, 13 June 2016