Less than a year into Government, and following a campaign centred on honesty, Labor has betrayed the trust of WA voters by breaking its commitment not to make changes to superannuation.
And don’t be fooled by efforts to downplay the scale of this – Labor’s story that doubling the tax rate on superannuation balance earnings will hurt just 80,000 Australians cannot be believed.
In just a few days, analysis running in the national media has the figure at more than 526,000 people.
And the Grattan Institute estimates that, within 30 years, about one in ten workers will begin to retire with super balances around $3 million – that’s 200 times more than the Government is claiming.
This is a broken promise that will hurt both young and old.
Investing in superannuation is compulsory and occurs over peoples’ entire working lives, so the decision by Labor to not index the $3 million cap creates a financial time bomb for the young.
Data from the Financial Services Council published in the AFR reveals that a 25-year-old retiring in 40 years will see the tax on their super double, equivalent to just over $1 million today.
Labor must be called out for creating a distraction from the more immediate issue facing WA households – Inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
Instead of campaigning on the superannuation balances of a certain demographic, and taxing young peoples’ future savings, Labor should instead focus on easing cost-of-living pressures and mortgage stress by finally delivering a plan to deal with inflation.
Labor did well in WA at the last election, but it should not get too comfortable and fall into its old habits of taking WA voters for granted.
And now this process has begun, WA voters should be asking themselves what Labor’s other plans are for taxing them and their families.