Anthony Albanese accused of lying over super changes, MP warns of more to follow

All Australians should be concerned about the government’s attack on high net worth individuals, who are the canary in the coalmine for future changes to the tax system, the deputy opposition leader has warned.

All Australians should be concerned about the government’s attack on high net worth individuals, who are the canary in the coalmine for future changes to the tax system that will hurt all Australians, deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley has warned.

“Anthony Albanese is breaking promises he made more than 97 times before the last election and legislating commitments he didn’t even mention once,” Ms Ley said.

“The point is not that 80,000 people with high super balances will pay more tax, the point is that Anthony Albanese lied – and if he lied to them, he will lie to you.

“Jim Chalmers knows the trajectory of the budget and the structural spending they have committed to and he is scrambling for any dollar or your money he can find.

“The reintroduction of the tax expenditures statement, which we abolished, is a shopping list for higher taxes,” she added, referring to a Treasury statement released this week that lists billions of dollars in tax revenue “foregone” due to various “concessions”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under attack from Sussan Ley. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

These include tax exemptions on the sale of one’s primary residence as well as GST exemptions for food, education, and health services and negative gearing.

Ms Ley’s comments come as the housing and construction sectors were on high alert after the Albanese government refused to rule out changes to negative gearing this week.

In an already difficult market with soaring interest rates, Housing Industry Association senior economist Tim Reardon said housing would not be made more affordable with additional taxes.

“You put a tax on carbon to get less carbon. If you put a tax on housing, you will get less houses. That is contrary to the government’s goals,” he said.

Sussan Ley has accused the government of lying. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“A reduction in tax would lead to more homes being built and improving affordability constraints.”

He urged any government to look at the past 40 years of negative gearing policy changes, including Paul Keating’s bid to scrap it in the 1980s, as a “cautionary tale”.

“It would be a “mistake” to think scrapping negative gearing would garner the $3.6 billion in revenue it currently raises,” he said.

Mr Chalmers has explicitly ruled out scrapping the capital gains tax exemption on the family home, but has not done so for negative gearing or other CGT concessions.

“We don’t intend to reheat the policies of the 2019 election, we’ve made that really clear,” Mr Chalmers said.