Latest news with #GerardRennick
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
One Nation's Malcolm Roberts returned to the Senate for Queensland, Gerard Rennick gets the boot
One Nation's Malcolm Roberts has held onto his Senate seat from Queensland, as former LNP Senator Gerard Rennick is booted from federal parliament. The Australian Electoral Commission officially declared Queensland's Senate election results on Thursday, with Labor gaining an extra position. It means of the six Senate seats up for grabs, Labor has won two, the LNP has secured two, the Greens have taken out one, and One Nation has also won one. Senator Roberts was elected to a second consecutive term — securing the sixth Senate position in Queensland ahead of Senator Rennick. Senator Rennick was elected in 2019 as an LNP candidate but later resigned from the party after he was defeated in a pre-selection ballot. In the 2025 poll, he ran as a candidate for his own party, People First. Senator Roberts will rejoin fellow One Nation senator Pauline Hanson, whose term is not due to expire for another three years. Labor's Nita Green was also returned to the Senate, with Corine Mulholland joining her as the second Labor candidate to win a Senate spot in Queensland. LNP Senators Susan McDonald and Paul Scarr were both re-elected. Senator McDonald will sit in the Coalition's shadow cabinet with the resources and northern Australia portfolio. The Greens' Larissa Waters, who was first elected to the Senate in 2011, has reclaimed her seat. She came in fifth in the Senate count for Queensland. Senator Waters was recently made the leader of her party after Adam Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne in the House of Representatives. Australian Electoral Officer for Queensland Stephanie Attard said preferences were distributed on Thursday. "As with all aspects of the count, scrutineers appointed by the candidates were able to witness the automated distribution of preferences undertaken today," she said.
Epoch Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
Taxing Unrealised Gains Discourages Australians from Managing Their Money: Senator Rennick
People First Senator Gerard Rennick has said the Labor government's proposed superannuation tax will impose a heavier burden on self-managing super funds, effectively discouraging people from handling their own retirement money. This comes as Labor is pushing for the super tax bill to pass the Senate after it was approved by the House of Representatives in October 2024. If passed, the bill would lift the tax rate on earnings from super balances above $3 million (US$1.95 million) in the accumulation phase from 15 to 30 percent from July 1, 2025. During the 2022 federal election campaign, Labor leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was the then-opposition leader, stated that the party had 'no intention of making any super changes.' However, after Labor won the election, the party went back on its promise by introducing the proposed tax in 2023. A controversial aspect of the bill is that it now targets 'unrealised capital gains' in super portfolios. Related Stories 5/19/2025 5/12/2025 This means superannuation members and those managing their self-managed super funds (SMSFs) will be required to pay an annual tax on increases in the value of their portfolio assets—even if those assets have not been sold. Financial experts have raised concerns about this unusual approach, which has not been adopted by any developed country so far. In a recent discussion paper ( 'Superannuants may be incentivised to realise gains more frequently to avoid accumulating large unrealised gains subject to taxation, even if it is not optimal from a long-term investment perspective,' he wrote. 'This could lead to higher portfolio turnover, increased transaction costs, and potentially lower overall returns for superannuation account holders.' Other distorted investment decisions included increasing liquidity in super funds to pay unrealised gains, and shifting to less productive assets to avoid higher taxes. Wilson Asset estimated that Labor' super tax scheme would result in economic efficiency losses of $94.5 billion. An elderly couple walk in Sydney, Australia, on June 2, Super Funds Will Face Higher Costs Rennick, who has 25 years of experience in the finance sector, pointed out another potential consequence of Labor's super tax—a significant increase in compliance costs for those who run SMSFs. As the new tax will apply to unrealised capital gains, super funds and SMSF trustees may need to regularly value their non-liquid assets, such as properties and shares. However, Rennick noted that SMSF trustees would face higher costs than larger super funds when valuing the same amount of assets. 'If you're an industry fund and there's a million people [in it], then that cost of doing it over a million people is shared,' he told The Epoch Times. '[You can have] a billion dollars inside an industry fund that needs one valuation. Or you can have 1,000 people with a million-dollar property each.' 'So the cost of compliance [for 1,000 people] is higher because you don't get the economies of scale. The cost of running a self-managed super fund is going to increase significantly.' Furthermore, the senator stated that there were risks associated with the valuation process of unlisted assets, as it could be very subjective. '[You will need to appoint] an auditor, an accountant, or a valuer. It is going to be very painful,' he said. Liberal Senator Gerard Rennick during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, April 6, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas A More Effective Way to Raise Taxes Rennick questioned Labor's idea of taxing unrealised capital gains instead of opting for a more effective tax measure. 'If they want to raise more money, [they can] raise more money by taxing incomes in the retirement phase above a certain level,' he said. '[Currently], there's no tax on your income in superannuation once you've retired, regardless of what your income is. Why wouldn't you bring a tax in on that?' The senator gave an example: a person earning $100,000 annually from their superannuation in retirement could have the first $50,000 tax-free, with the remaining $50,000 subject to tax. According to data from the Australian Taxation Office, there are 646,168 SMSFs with 1,197,293 members as of March 2025. The total estimated value of assets held by these funds is around $1.01 trillion. Australia Has An Expenditure Problem, Not Revenue One: Director Amid the Labor's government attempt to collect more tax from working people, Wilson pointed out that Australia does not have a revenue problem. 'The federal governments already collects $700 billion in taxation revenue and is the fourth highest in the developed world for income tax to GDP,' he said. 'We do not have a revenue problem in Australia, we have a well-documented expenditure problem. 'Expenditure reform should be the focus to restore budget confidence, not the taxing of unrealised gains on superannuation.'
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Australian senator enrages Bitcoin community with brutal take on cryptocurrency
An Australian senator has managed to enrage the entire Bitcoin community after branding the wildly popular cryptocurrency as a 'Ponzi scheme'. Gerard Rennick made the comments last week after Bitcoin (BTC) reached an all-time high of $111,977, driven by a wave of optimism over cryptocurrency legislation in the United States. Experts hailed the surge as a 'major milestone'. However, Senator Rennick dismissed this recent development, saying Bitcoin will ultimately go to $1 million. He said this was because the cryptocurrency is a Ponzi scheme, which is a fraudulent investment scheme that relies on recruiting new investors to pay returns to earlier investors. The People First Party founder then suggested BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager and one of the largest Bitcoin holders, would 'pump more and more dollars into a supply constrained product'. 'What exactly will this product produce? Absolutely nothing and nor will the thousands of people buying and selling it,' Senator Rennick wrote on X. 'Australia needs real engineers not financial engineers. We need infrastructure that delivers essential services particularly energy, water and transport. You can't eat Bitcoin.' His comments immediately drew ire from the wider cryptocurrency community, but the senator refused to back down. 'What a spectacularly stupid response. I look forward to plastering it everywhere when you try and make yourself relevant in the next election,' one person said. To which Senator Rennick noted the role 'of a politician isn't to engage in promoting a speculative asset'. When another person claimed he was 'embarrassing' himself and told him to study Bitcoin further, he questioned why he should, asking, 'What difference does it matter to you if I understand it or not. If you believe in it then, good for you but mind your own business when it comes to my life and how I choose to live it.' He added that he understood it enough to 'know it's not going to solve Australia's economic problems'. In response to his claims that you 'can't eat Bitcoin', one person pointed out that you 'also can't eat the internet' and asked the politician whether he was 'opposed to that too'. 'No but I'm not claiming the internet is the solution to all our problems. Bitcoiners seem to think Bitcoin is the solution to our monetary problems. It's not. Securing credit against hard assets that generate goods and services is the solution,' Senator Rennick said. 'Whether Bitcoin is worth $10 or $1 million is irrelevant if a nation can't feed itself.' When another social media user told him to read some books on Bitcoin, he responded by telling them to 'get a life'. 'The fact that you care about my views on Bitcoin shows your hypocrisy. I don't pretend to be an expert - I was trolled by a Bitcoin grifter. I prefer to deal in real objects - it's my right to choose that,' he said. 'On the other hand you Bitcoiners claim to want to be free from political interference yet crave my opinion on it. What does it matter. It will go to a million dollars and you will be happy. On the other hand I will be happy enjoying the real world of Mother Nature and being trained in skills that matter.' This is just a small section of the lengthy online bickering that ensued in the wake of Senator Rennick's initial comment. In fact, the reaction was so large that the Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB) released a lengthy statement admonishing the senator for engaging in such a debate. The body claimed that, as a public representative, he has a duty to engage with the concerns of Australians in an intellectually honest way, rather than 'dismiss them from a place of confusion or authority'. It accused Senator Rennick of having a 'deep misunderstanding' of Bitcoin, warning this could ultimately lead to bad policy. 'This isn't about whether Australians can use Bitcoin — we already do. This is about whether our government is capable of understanding how Bitcoin can enrich the nation, drive innovation, and build long-term resilience for Australians,' ABIB said.
Sydney Morning Herald
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Is my street a harbinger of a changing federal parliament?
Every time I pull into my driveway, I am confronted with the gigantic head of federal Fremantle Labor pollie Josh Wilson on an election placard near my neighbour's letterbox. Surely, that chiselled, shapely hair has been photoshopped? Directly across the road, there is another campaign sign for maverick Queensland senator Gerard Rennick's newly founded People's First Party. The Liberal party defector's face is on the banner, surrounded by the two WA candidates for the Senate, who eerily resemble the grown-up Von Trapp kids from The Sound of Music. Politicians naming a party after themselves have the same peculiar pomposity as a musician putting his name in the title of a yacht rock band. A few doors down, Greens candidate Amy Warne's tiny sign leans on an angle, nestled among native plants, only metres away from two dusty, leaf-covered Priuses. A couple of houses away, local independent Kate Hulett's poster is neatly wrapped around a small, fading, picket fence. The prominent teal candidate is having a crack at the federal stage after coming within a whisker of knocking off Labor's Simone McGurk in last month's state election. At the end of my street, there is a splattering of campaign placards belonging to micro-parties, whose unassuming names disguise policies that would make Donald Trump giggle.
The Age
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Is my street a harbinger of a changing federal parliament?
Every time I pull into my driveway, I am confronted with the gigantic head of federal Fremantle Labor pollie Josh Wilson on an election placard near my neighbour's letterbox. Surely, that chiselled, shapely hair has been photoshopped? Directly across the road, there is another campaign sign for maverick Queensland senator Gerard Rennick's newly founded People's First Party. The Liberal party defector's face is on the banner, surrounded by the two WA candidates for the Senate, who eerily resemble the grown-up Von Trapp kids from The Sound of Music. Politicians naming a party after themselves have the same peculiar pomposity as a musician putting his name in the title of a yacht rock band. A few doors down, Greens candidate Amy Warne's tiny sign leans on an angle, nestled among native plants, only metres away from two dusty, leaf-covered Priuses. A couple of houses away, local independent Kate Hulett's poster is neatly wrapped around a small, fading, picket fence. The prominent teal candidate is having a crack at the federal stage after coming within a whisker of knocking off Labor's Simone McGurk in last month's state election. At the end of my street, there is a splattering of campaign placards belonging to micro-parties, whose unassuming names disguise policies that would make Donald Trump giggle.
