Treasurer Jim Chalmers under fire for refusal to ‘take feedback' on superannuation tax changes

Sky News AU

02-07-2025

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been accused of refusing 'to listen' after he repeatedly rejected calls from a litany of groups to index the government's 'flawed' unrealised gains tax on super accounts.
Opposition to Labor's plan to double the tax rate from 15 to 30 per cent on super accounts over $3 million has picked up pace, with former prime minister Paul Keating and secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions' Sally McManus blasting the government for not indexing the policy.
Mr Chalmers is being urged to dump or drastically overhaul the plan ahead of the upcoming economic reform roundtable.
It comes as after a report from Wilson Asset Management revealed the move would inflict a $20 billion hit to the budget over four years, with an array of small growth businesses and startups forgoing billions in tax revenue.
Liberal MP Aaron Violi blasted the Treasurer for declining to heed the advice of a long line of industry experts and said the government should be willing to make concessions if it wanted to tackle stagnating productivity.
'It's clear these changes to superannuation indexation are not supported by Sally McManus at the ACTU. Paul Keating let the cat out of the bag yesterday about indexation, that most if not all Australians ... will now be hit,' Mr Violi said.
'Indexation is one of those red lines for us as a Coalition because we know more and more Australians will hit that $3 million mark in the future and the reality is that $3 million today will be different to $3 million in ten, twenty and thirty years.
'Jim Chalmers has to be prepared to listen and take the feedback, and I don't know anyone outside of Jim and Anthony Albanese that think this is a good proposal.'
Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Wilson Asset Management Geoff Wilson also despaired that young Australians entering the workforce today would be caught up in the tax due to wages and inflation shifts over time.
"In terms of destroying the aspirations for young Australians, that's what this tax on unrealised gains is going to do,' Mr Wilson said.
He also savaged the government for taxing unrealised capital gains which is widely considered an unprecedented move that goes against decades of Australian taxation theory.
'It's illogical, it's flawed, some people are saying it's s criminal theft, paying tax on a profit or a gain you may never make.'
Mr Wilson told Sky News he would be penning a formal submission to the government's productivity roundtable containing his fund's dire findings and arguing that the tax would be a productivity killer.
Mr Violi railed against the government for targeting unrealised gains, and said the move was sparking alarm and outrage among his constituents.
'That principle of taxing unrealised capital gains, farms in my community and others that might have a paper profit but they don't actually have the money to pay an extra tax on that, they are the two red lines for us,' Mr Violi said.
Labor MP Julian Hill told Sky News that the change would only impact a modest amount of wealthy Australians.
'We took the tax change to the election, we have a mandate, that's our position, I think that we've won that argument with the Australian people.'