Greens say they won't back 'watered-down' superannuation changes
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Version 0 of 1. Richard Di Natale has warned that the Greens will not support superannuation reforms if the government waters down a package designed to limit the use of super as a tax minimisation strategy. The warning creates a dilemma for the treasurer, Scott Morrison, who is being pressured by conservative colleagues to lift the lifetime cap on non-concessional after-tax super contributions above the proposed level of $500,000. Leaving the proposed cap at $500,000 could risk a backbench revolt in the Coalition, but watering down the changes may hamper the government’s ability to win crossbench support to pass the changes in the Senate. Di Natale has also defended the Greens’ frontbench reshuffle, which saw Sarah Hanson-Young lose the immigration portfolio and Adam Bandt trade treasury for the climate change portfolio. Asked on Radio National on Friday if the Greens would support super changes, Di Natale said: “Well if they keep watering them down, if Malcolm Turnbull keeps making concessions to the hard right of his party, we won’t support them.” The Greens leader accepted the need for reform. He advocated taxing contributions to make the system more progressive as the “fairest and most effective” way to fix the system. “The great danger here is Malcolm Turnbull being so compromised within his own party, [it] looks like he’s making more and more concessions to the hard right and what we’re going to end up with is a very watered-down version and, certainly, if that happens we won’t support it.” On Wednesday the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, offered the government a compromise on super reform to remove the backdating on the $500,000 lifetime cap in return for lower thresholds for high-income contributions. Morrison immediately rebuffed the offer, prompting criticism from the backbench MP Russell Broadbent for failing to reach a compromise. Di Natale said Hanson-Young, who wanted to keep the job, had been doing well in the immigration portfolio but after nine years in the job it was time to “refresh and reinvigorate the team”. On ABC News Breakfast he said he was “very keen for Sarah to work on a super-education portfolio” including early childhood education, schools and higher education. Di Natale defended giving Hanson-Young the economic portfolios of finance and trade portfolios, despite her struggling to explain superannuation policy during the election. “She is actually very talented,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity for her to demonstrate that she is somebody who can engage in the economic debate in a really sophisticated way. It’s hardly a hanging offence for people to make a mistake during the election campaign.” Di Natale accepted there was a structural deficit in the budget that needed to be addressed. Noting the treasurer’s speech about Australia being divided into the “taxed and the taxed-nots”, the Greens leader said Morrison had neglected to address tax avoiders and tax concessions such as negative gearing that benefit high-income earners. He said the government was “effectively proposing to abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency” through a $1.3bn cut. He also said his party would announce its position on the same-sex marriage plebiscite “very shortly”. The Greens have been strident critics of the plebiscite but have not committed to block enabling legislation. “We don’t want a plebiscite –we think a plebiscite is harmful, divisive, expensive,” he said. “Why should issues of fundamental human rights be put to an opinion poll? I don’t think that’s how we should be making those important decisions.” His comments come after Liberal MPs warned that Labor’s likely decision to block the marriage equality plebiscite could spell the end of the issue for the next three years. |