Australian Financial Review
16 April 2019
Andrew Tillett – Political Correspondent
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged not to introduce any new or higher
taxes on superannuation as he attacked Labor’s policy to scrap franking
credit refunds.
Campaigning in the retiree haven of Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, which is in the
marginal seat of Corangamite, Mr Morrison warned that Labor’s raid on their
nest eggs would limit their choice.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the member for Corangamite Sarah Henderson
attend a public forum with senior members of the community at the Springdale
Neighborhood Centre in Drysdale near Geelong on April 16, 2019.
Seeking to sharpen comparisons with Labor, which has proposed further
changes to superannuation, as well as to win back the Liberal base upset
over the Turnbull government’s changes targeting wealthier retirees, Mr
Morrison pledged no more tinkering with superannuation.
“Today I’m saying under my government there will be no higher taxes or new
taxes on superannuation,” he told a seniors forum in Drysdale. He said the
end of franking credit refunds, which the Coalition has
dubbed a “retiree tax” was the most “pernicious” of Labor’s tax increases.
Mr Morrison said the refunds were relied upon by retirees to help with the
cost of living, such as private health insurance, electricity and even
paying to travel to see family.
“That’s what Labor’s retiree tax will take away and steal from Australians,”
he said.
Labor has argued removing franking credits refunds is a matter of fairness
because recipients do not pay tax. The policy, which exempts pensioners,
will raise about $57 billion over 10 years but unlikely to win Senate
support.
Local member and junior frontbencher Sarah Henderson is facing an uphill
battle to hold Corangamite after a redistribution turned it into Labor seat
with a 0.3 per cent margin.”
