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News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Should be worried': Mark Bouris' superannuation warning to young Aussies
Millionaire businessman Mark Bouris has warned 'every young person' in Australia 'should be worried' as debate rages over Labor's superannuation tax changes. From July, 12 per cent of most workers' wages will be paid into their superannuation fund (a 0.5 per cent increase from the current amount). Treasurer Jim Chalmers' proposed changes, known as Division 296, would double the rate of tax levied by the government from 15 per cent to 30 per cent for superannuation balances over $3 million. Only around 80,000 Australians, or 0.5 per cent of the population, currently have super balances above $3 million, but industry groups have warned that if the threshold is not indexed to inflation it could eventually capture the majority of Gen Zs entering the workforce today. Mr Bouris joined the chorus in the latest episode of his Mentored+ podcast, arguing Labor's super tax on unreleased gains will put more – not less – pressure on young people. 'Every young person in the country should be worried about this, and I'll tell you why: because every old person in the country has experienced building their superannuation up with only 15 per cent tax rate from day 1, for the last 30, 40 years, since (then-Prime Minister Paul) Keating introduced it in the early '90s,' he said. Compulsory employer contributions to superannuation were introduced by Mr Keating in 1992, at the time requiring them to kick in 4 per cent. According to a recent study by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), some $4.2 trillion of superannuation is held by Australian workers, while household savings have been boosted by more than $500 billion since compulsory super's inception. 'We've had this, all of us had this fantastic low-tax situation with the money we earn in our super fund,' Mr Bouris said. 'Now, young people who accumulate more than $3 million worth of assets – and they will – will not have the same benefits that everyone else has had since Keating introduced this legislation.' Mr Bouris suggested the former leader 'must be just feeling completely demoralised and probably, to some extent, betrayed' by the expected changes, which he described as 'the envy of the rest of the world … put there to take the strain off government'. Last August, Mr Keating warned the 'unconscionable' doubling of tax on retirement savings could turn superannuation into a low- and middle-income pension scheme and damage community confidence in the system he had created. 'All (Labor's changes) is going to do is put more strain on government when people retire, because people are not going to retire with enough money because they are going to be paying too much tax – and the people who are going to be affected by that most is anyone starting work today, any new young person,' Mr Bouris continued. 'So if you're a young person and you're saying, 'Oh, this is great', because you're gonna get rich people to transfer the wealth across to the younger people – uh-uh. 'You will be transferring it to your kids – and it's going to keep going like that forever, and this $3 million at some period of time will be worth, like, $100k, like a hundred grand's-worth today, because the time value of money just keeps creeping and creeping and creeping.' Labor first announced the crackdown on tax concessions for very large super balances in 2023, but the legislation was blocked by the previous Senate. The changes – expected to initially claw back $2.7 billion a year and nearly $40 billion over a decade – now look likely to become law as a deal with the Greens looms. 'What we need to do is make sure that our superannuation system is fair,' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week. 'That is what we are setting out to do.' Division 296 will also be applied to defined benefit pensions — an older style of superannuation scheme that was common in public sector and local government workplaces until the 1990s. A defined benefit pension guarantees the amount you will receive in retirement. The move to include it in the new tax changes are to ensure 'commensurate treatment' as high-balance super funds — although unlike super account holders, those eligible will be able to defer the payments until they retire. Interest will be charged annually on the deferred tax liability at the 10-year bond rate, currently at around 4.5 per cent. Treasury estimates that 10,000 members with defined benefit interests will be impacted by the new tax in 2025-26, 'representing approximately 1 per cent of the total population with DB interests'.
NDTV
03-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
What You Need To Know About Australia's Upcoming Election
Quick Take Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. Australia will hold a general election on May 3, with Prime Minister Albanese's Labor party leading in polls against Dutton's coalition. Compulsory voting and preferential systems are in place, with independents potentially playing a key role in the outcome. Sydney: Australia will hold a general election on Saturday, May 3. Opinion polls indicate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's ruling centre-left Labor party is ahead of the conservative Liberal-National coalition led by Peter Dutton, as global uncertainty fuelled by U.S. President Donald Trump makes some voters more risk averse. A large number of independent and minor parties are also seeking reelection and could become king-makers if either major bloc falls short of majority government. Labor returned to power in 2022 after nine years of Liberal-National coalition rule. Here are some facts on how elections work in Australia: How Does it Work? Australia is one of the few countries in the world with compulsory voting for all citizens aged 18 years and older. Around 4.8 million of 18 million eligible voters had cast a ballot at early voting centres by Thursday. Counting of ballots will start from 6 p.m. Australian Eastern Time (0800 GMT) on Saturday after polling closes. Election tallies are progessively published on the Australian Electoral Commission website. The commission never officially declares results of a federal election on election night. Whether analysts or political parties declare a result on Saturday evening will depend on how close the race is. Most postal votes will be counted after the election day. Australia's Parliament There are two houses of parliament, with the government formed by the party or coalition holding a majority in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives. The prime minister is chosen by the governing party from the House. The upper house, the Senate, has 76 members - 12 from each of the six states and two from each of Australia's two less-populous territories. Half of the Senate seats will be contested at this election. What's The State Of Play Now? Labor holds 77 House of Representatives seats, the Liberal-National coalition holds 53 seats, the Greens hold 4, and 15 are held by micro parties and independents. A loose grouping of seven "Teal" independents are women who won Liberal seats by focussing on climate change and government accountability. To form majority government in the 2025 election, a party or coalition needs 76 seats out of 150. If neither Labor nor the Liberal-National coalition has a majority of seats in the House of Representatives after polling day, a minority government can be formed with an agreement of support from independent members or minor parties. Such an agreement is not legally binding, and is only a political pledge of support which can be changed at any time, because a member of parliament cannot contract their vote, according to constitutional law experts. How Do Australians Vote? Australia has a preferential voting system for the House of Representatives. Voters rank local candidates in order of preference on their ballot papers. A candidate who gets more than 50% of the first-preference votes wins the seat. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the one with the fewest votes is excluded and their votes are distributed to the person each of those voters nominated as their second preference. This continues until one candidate passes the 50% threshold.
The Guardian
09-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australian government gave $2.7m to Elon Musk's X for advertisements in billionaire's first year as owner
The Australian government spent nearly $3m of taxpayer dollars advertising on Twitter/X in the first year after the world's richest man, Elon Musk, took over the platform, despite warnings of brand reputation damage that caused the government to initially pause ads. Data obtained by Guardian Australia, after a protracted freedom of information battle with the federal finance department, revealed $2.7m was spent between November 2022 and November 2023. Musk finalised his purchase of the platform on 28 October 2022. The data covers all ad spending on government department campaigns including health advisories and messaging around budget initiatives. In 2022-2023 this included advertising around the voice referendum and vaccine advertisements, among others. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter The spending comes despite the government pausing ad spend on what was then called Twitter on 29 September 2022, following reports of a number of brands' advertisements appearing next to inappropriate content on Twitter, a report from the Australian National Audit Office revealed last week. A spokesperson for the finance department said it was suspended 'to evaluate brand safety measures' and restored shortly after. 'Following further review, the government's master media agency that manages advertising placement advised that sufficient brand safety measures were in place and advertising could return to the platform on 5 October 2022 with the exception of placements on Twitter profiles,' the spokesperson said. The following year's data – accounting for the shift when Musk became a full-throated supporter of Donald Trump – is being withheld until January 2026. The department said in its decision that releasing the data now would weaken the government's ability to negotiate with media on advertising. Sources have told Guardian Australia the total ad spend for the year is similar to 2022-23. Axel Bruns, professor in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology, said the spend could reflect the uncertainty the government had around whether the platform would continue to be popular under Musk's leadership. 'With hindsight, there now seems little value in government advertising on X – the platform is overrun with disinformation, abuse, hate speech and spam bots, and most sensible users will have left by now,' he said. 'This might not have been as clear at the time when this advertising was purchased, though.' Bruns said any continued government advertising on X is 'unlikely to make its desired impact on audiences' but could be seen to be soft diplomacy to win favour with the Trump administration, but said it would not be a 'useful investment' given the reputation damage to continue to advertise on X in its current form. The continued ad spend comes despite Musk describing the Albanese government as 'fascist' over its now-abandoned misinformation legislation, and engaging in several legal battles with the Australian online safety regulator over content moderation on X, one of which was heard in the administrative review tribunal last week. Musk has become inexorably entwined with Trump and subsequently the new US administration in the past few months. Prior to running the US government's department of government efficiency (Doge) tasked with slashing government programs and spending, Musk became Trump's biggest campaign donor in the 2024 presidential election, and invested millions in his failed attempt to have a conservative judge win the Wisconsin supreme court's election last week. Musk's personal popularity has tanked this year, as a result, with a recent poll finding more than half of Americans believed Musk and Doge were harming the US. The finance department, which collects data from every government agency on ad spending, does not typically break down spending on individual platforms. Total digital ad spending for 2022-2023 was $56.3m. Guardian Australia filed a freedom of information request with the finance department for data specifically on X spending last year, but was initially refused. After seeking a review of the decision by the Australian information commissioner, the finance department agreed to release the first year of data this week. X was contacted for comment.
