Latest news with #AndrewBragg
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
Liberals were too focused on homebuyer help and urban sprawl, says Andrew Bragg
The Liberal Party's reliance on urban sprawl to fix the housing crisis was "misguided" and the opposition could prioritise supply by threatening state governments, new spokesperson Andrew Bragg has said. Previously an assistant in the housing portfolio under Peter Dutton, Senator Bragg was promoted on Wednesday to shadow minister by Sussan Ley, who said he would also have "economy-wide" responsibility for productivity and deregulation. "You should have some policies which help prioritise first homeowners, but the thrust of your policy should be on the supply side," he told the ABC in an interview. "We need to look very carefully at how we ensure that the states are going to meet their end of the bargain … We need to look at the carrots and the sticks." Senator Bragg also declared himself a supporter of working from home and suggested he would focus on slashing paperwork for small business owners, whom he said Labor had neglected. Economists panned Mr Dutton's housing platform, which would have allowed first homebuyers tap into their super, secure easier loans, and enjoy tax deductions on their mortgages. Senator Bragg said it was "possible" the approach he helped to craft did too much on the demand side and could have pushed up prices. "We need to find demand-side policies which do tilt the scales in favour of first homebuyers, and which do ensure that the bank of mum and dad is not going to be the only way that a young person can get a house. [But] the supply side is very important." The main Coalition supply policy at the last election was to fund sewer pipes and connecting roads to build new homes on the urban fringe, which then-housing spokesperson Michael Sukkar said should be the location of the "Australian dream". But Senator Bragg said supply policy should not be fixated on outer suburbia. "Our policies going forward will be reviewed, but my disposition is … if we have a housing supply policy it would be deployed everywhere, in the inner city, in the regions, in the outer suburbs. "You need to infill. You need to build up where the transport infrastructure is, and the idea that you would have a scheme that would only apply to outer suburbs, I think, is very misguided … People live everywhere, frankly." Senator Bragg said Labor's proposal for the federal government to build homes itself via grants was "one of the craziest ideas I've ever heard" and would be opposed. Instead, he said the focus should be on knocking down barriers to private sector supply at state and local level and left the door open to withholding GST or other payments from states that don't do enough, an idea he floated as assistant spokesperson. "In NSW for example, Chris Minns talks a big game on housing, but the Rose Hill complex has fallen over, he's had a number of disasters under his premiership … Maybe we look at league tables, we look at working out how exactly we rank states." In his newly created portfolio of productivity and deregulation, Senator Bragg said the priority would be to advocate for unlocking more private investment. "The most jobs created in Australia in the last few years are non-market jobs. The size of the state is getting larger and larger … [but] we haven't even seen from the government discussion of what you can do to get private investment moving." He said Labor had "vacated the field" on stimulating investment and that Australia should focus on "national competitiveness". "We are in a global race to attract more investment into our jurisdiction because that will result in more jobs," he said. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has named productivity as a priority for Labor's second term and tasked the independent Productivity Commission with proposing reforms. Senator Bragg said he would "do a lot of listening" to the commission and others. He added the Coalition would prioritise regulation busting for small businesses. "My sense is that most small businesspeople feel like the government doesn't imagine that they are people," he said. "When they finish their job at the end of the day they go home and they do their compliance tasks for the government, and so they lose their recreation and family time. And so we want to free people up to have their lives back." For larger businesses, he said the federal government's standard process for assessing the impact of regulations was not a "serious process". "I think we've got to be much more rigorous about how we assess the cost of new regulation." Senator Bragg, a leading moderate, made a pointed defence of Australia's target of net zero emissions by 2050, set by the Morrison government as part of the Paris climate accords but opposed by some Nationals. "We're looking at how net zero can best be deployed in Australia as part of our policy review. We are committed to cutting emissions and that can only be done as part of an international framework, so that's our starting point," he said. Ms Ley has declined to confirm that net zero will remain Coalition policy at the end of the review, but Senator Bragg said it was the "starting point". "We signed Australia up to net zero in 2021 … There are different ways of doing that and that's a process now that [energy spokesperson] Dan Tehan will lead," he said.
The Age
4 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Chalmers ‘confused' about veteran MPs' super tax escape clause: Bragg
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has accused Treasurer Jim Chalmers of not knowing how the government's new super tax will work after a senior Labor minister refused to say whether it was fair that some public officials would be able to delay paying their resultant tax bill. Bragg, in a statement on Tuesday, said Chalmers had been unclear and confused about how the tax on super balances of more than $3 million would apply to the prime minister. 'Chalmers clearly hasn't read his unrealised gains tax bill and draft regulations,' he said. 'He doesn't know how it works for the prime minister and retired politicians.' Pressure on the government's new tax on superannuation earnings has come from tax experts and investors who say the threshold should be indexed and the capturing of unrealised capital gains trashed. Chalmers himself has dismissed the calls. The new tax, set to take effect on July 1, will double the tax rate for superannuation earnings from 15 per cent to 30 per cent for the portion above $3 million in a super balance. The tax rate will also apply to unrealised capital gains on amounts above this threshold. Chalmers, at a press conference earlier this month, said he was unable to put an exact number on the amount of tax the prime minister would pay in the first year of his pension, but said there were provisions in the draft regulations for defined benefit schemes that would ensure the taxes were fair. 'When it comes to the prime minister, his pension's not yet known,' he said. 'There are calculations, [and] those calculations are very similar to the ones that the Liberals and Nationals put in when they changed superannuation in the last term of the government and will apply to the prime minister, [and] any politician who's got the equivalent of more than $3 million in super.' Appearing on Nine's Today Show on Tuesday morning, Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth deflected a question on whether it was fair that some politicians elected before John Howard scrapped the scheme in 2004 could wait until retirement to pay the tax bill on their savings, while others caught by the tax – estimated to be just 1 in 200 people – would have to find the cash to pay immediately. Rishworth, elected in 2007, will not get annual salary when she leaves parliament, but argued that all politicians would still have to pay the higher tax rate on earnings if their super balances tipped over the new threshold.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Chalmers ‘confused' about veteran MPs' super tax escape clause: Bragg
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has accused Treasurer Jim Chalmers of not knowing how the government's new super tax will work after a senior Labor minister refused to say whether it was fair that some public officials would be able to delay paying their resultant tax bill. Bragg, in a statement on Tuesday, said Chalmers had been unclear and confused about how the tax on super balances of more than $3 million would apply to the prime minister. 'Chalmers clearly hasn't read his unrealised gains tax bill and draft regulations,' he said. 'He doesn't know how it works for the prime minister and retired politicians.' Pressure on the government's new tax on superannuation earnings has come from tax experts and investors who say the threshold should be indexed and the capturing of unrealised capital gains trashed. Chalmers himself has dismissed the calls. The new tax, set to take effect on July 1, will double the tax rate for superannuation earnings from 15 per cent to 30 per cent for the portion above $3 million in a super balance. The tax rate will also apply to unrealised capital gains on amounts above this threshold. Chalmers, at a press conference earlier this month, said he was unable to put an exact number on the amount of tax the prime minister would pay in the first year of his pension, but said there were provisions in the draft regulations for defined benefit schemes that would ensure the taxes were fair. 'When it comes to the prime minister, his pension's not yet known,' he said. 'There are calculations, [and] those calculations are very similar to the ones that the Liberals and Nationals put in when they changed superannuation in the last term of the government and will apply to the prime minister, [and] any politician who's got the equivalent of more than $3 million in super.' Appearing on Nine's Today Show on Tuesday morning, Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth deflected a question on whether it was fair that some politicians elected before John Howard scrapped the scheme in 2004 could wait until retirement to pay the tax bill on their savings, while others caught by the tax – estimated to be just 1 in 200 people – would have to find the cash to pay immediately. Rishworth, elected in 2007, will not get annual salary when she leaves parliament, but argued that all politicians would still have to pay the higher tax rate on earnings if their super balances tipped over the new threshold.
News.com.au
6 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Liberal senator claims PM to get super tax carve out
The man vying for treasurer in Sussan Ley's shadow cabinet has accused Jim Chalmers of plotting a super tax carve out for Anthony Albanese without offering any evidence. It was revealed last week a handful of judges and former state-level officials would be exempt from Labor's proposal to roll back concessions on ultra-high super balances. But the exemptions would be restricted to 'those earnings in superannuation funds that the constitution prevents being taxed by the government will be excluded', according to a government summary document. Even though the Prime Minister did not fall into the category, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg on Sunday claimed the Treasurer was planning 'a tax on everyone except for Mr Albanese, where he will set special arrangements for the Prime Minister'. 'He has given himself a regulation making power where he will set the Prime Minister's tax and pension arrangements after the bill has passed the Senate,' Senator Bragg told Sky News. 'Now, if he's serious about applying it to the Prime Minister, he will put the parliamentary scheme into the Bill.' He could not provide evidence when pressed, only repeating that Mr Chalmers had 'given himself a regulation making power, so the regulations will be made after the Bill is passed'. 'This is a massive integrity issue,' Senator Bragg said. Only half a per cent Australians — some 80,000 — have super balances north of $3m. Under the changes, they would pay an addition 15 per cent on yields. It would pump about $2.7bn into Commonwealth coffers, according to Treasury estimates. The plan, which Labor took to the federal election, has drawn ire, with some critics decrying it a tax on unrealised gains and others warning it could penalise younger generations down the track. Teal independent Monique Ryan has called on the Albanese government to index the tax to make sure it rose with inflation. She warned it 'could affect all Gen Z Australians by the time they turn 60' if changes were not made.
Sky News AU
6 days ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
Liberal Senator's warning amid Coalition tensions over supermarket break-up powers
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has discussed the proposal to introduce court-ordered divestiture powers for supermarkets and hardware stores. Mr Bragg warned against policies that could damage private investment amid internal divisions over the proposal. 'In the extraordinary situation where all other competition policy options have been exhausted, divestiture could be a last resort,' he told Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell. 'But you wouldn't want to do anything that was going to damage private investment because it's on strike under this government.' Mr Bragg's comments come after the Liberals agreed 'in principle' to the Nationals' policy demands, which includes introducing supermarket divestiture laws.
