Tag: save our super

Australians’ Trust In Superannuation Betrayed And Undermined

Whoever forms government whether it be Labor or Liberal will need to put their superannuation proposals into legislation. Save Our Super will be speaking to which ever party wins the election about grandfathering certain of their proposed super changes.

Jack Hammond QC – Save Our Super

David Flint Interviews Jack Hammond QC

Save Our Super Public Meeting – Malvern Town Hall – 7.30pm Monday 20 June 2016

At 7.30pm on Monday 20 June 2016,Save Our Super will hold a Public Meeting in the Malvern Town Hall (corner Glenferrie Road and High Street, Malvern, Victoria) to call for bi-partisan support from the Government and Labor for grandfathering a number of the Government’s and Opposition’s superannuation policies.

Save Our Super has invited Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer to address the meeting and take questions and comments from the floor.

The Malvern Town Hall is in the heart of Kelly O’Dwyer’s Federal seat of Higgins. Continue reading

Federal Election 2016: Shock poll result for Kelly O’Dwyer

Click here for the original article in The Age

 

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Scott Morrison’s 12 tax-free superannuation promises : May to June 2015

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

Why I formed Save Our Super

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

Federal Election 2016: Kelly O’Dwyer facing super pressure

Click here to see the original article in The Australian

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Letters To The Editor – The Australian – Superannuation Change… no longer trust governments

Click here to see the original article in The Australian

 

superannuation change means savers can no longer trust governments

The Australian – Federal Election 2016: QC’s group lobbies for super changes

Click here for The Australian article – QC’s group lobbies for super changes

jhtheaustralianarticle

Federal election 2016: QC’s group lobbies for super changes

By Glenda Korporaal, Associate Editor (Business) Sydney

Leading Melbourne QC Jack Hammond is expected to launch a lobby group today to campaign against the Coalition government’s proposed superannuation law changes.

Mr Hammond will speak at a Melbourne meeting of lawyers and judges tonight and is expected to announce the formation of a group called Save Our Super which will call on the government to “grandfather” the impact of proposed superannuation changes on existing superannuation account holders.

The changes announced on budget night include imposition of a $1.6 million cap on the amount of money that can be moved into a tax-free super account, an immediate lifetime cap of $500,000 for post-tax contributions to superannuation, cutbacks in the attractiveness of transition to ­retirement schemes, higher taxes on super contributions for people earning more than $250,000 and higher taxes on payouts under ­defined benefit superannuation schemes above $100,000 a year.

In an interview with The Australian yesterday, Mr Hammond said the proposed changes were “manifestly unfair and unreasonable to individuals who now, or will, rely on their superannuation savings for retirement income”.

He said the government should not “make new rules which significantly affected” holders of existing super accounts “by penalising their actions taken in good faith, encouraged by the government, under then existing rules”.

Mr Hammond said changes to superannuation by either political party should have “appropriate grandfathering provisions to protect all affected Australians”.

However, grandfathering the budget changes would substantially reduce the expected $6 billion savings the government expects to reap over the next four years.

“A number of barristers and others share with me their concern, anger and dismay that the government proposes to make such changes,” Mr Hammond said. “The government gave no notice of the changes to superannuation which has caused people to lose faith in superannuation as a long-term investment vehicle and lose faith in the government.”

Mr Hammond, a barrister in Victoria for more than three decades, said he was in the process of retiring from his practice and would be “significantly affected” by several of the government’s proposed changes.

He said the proposed changes to superannuation rules would cause “millions of Australians who are effectively compelled by the Australian compulsory superannuation scheme to place their trust in the government” to lose faith in the system.

People who had not yet started superannuation needed to be “reassured that they can trust governments to always treat them fairly and reasonably” before they committed their savings to the ­system.

Mr Hammond’s new group is expected to call on all major political parties to grandfather their proposed super changes.

The NSW, Victorian and Australian bar associations said yesterday they did not have a policy on the Coalition’s proposed superannuation changes.

Save Our Super

Save Our Super is an apolitical community-based group which makes the public aware of the implications of the Coalition’s superannuation legislation and Labor’s superannuation policies.

Some of our supporters vote Liberal/National; some vote Labor; others vote for other parties or independents. But we are united in Our Call For Action by the Federal Parliament.

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