Angry retirees jeer Labor’s policy of axing refunds for share tax credits
Furious retirees and financial planners from the bell weather seat of Eden Monaro today jeered and booed attempts to explain Labor’s policy on axing refunds for share tax credits.
NSW
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Angry retirees and financial planners from the bell weather seat of Eden Monaro today jeered and booed attempts to explain Labor’s policy on axing refunds for share tax credits.
More than 150 people attended the parliamentary standing committee hearing on the impact of plans to axe franking credits on shares at the Merimbula RSL club on the NSW South Coast today.
“What we object to is the arbitrary decision by the Labor leader to make a quick tax grab,” retiree John Stevens told the inquiry.
Around 84,000 retirees will lose money if the Labor proposal to remove refunds for share tax credits goes ahead.
Labor leader Bill Shorten has said he “is not for turning” on the policy and backed shadow treasurer Chris Bowen’s statement that anyone who did not like the policy could vote for someone else.
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Retiree Jonathon Gaul said “retirement incomes will be ransacked by Bill Shorten’s proposal to remove refunds for franking credits.”
He stands to lose $6000 from his $47,700 income if the credits are axed and described the Labor policy as “a death tax” that would prevent him from leaving any inheritance for his three children.
The hearing’s deputy chair, Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite, asked him “where does it say we should be passing on money to our kids?”
“I am talking about the real world sir,” said Mr Gaul to cheers from the audience. He went on to explain that he needed to maintain his income to balance funds up to his death.
“If you can tell me when I am going to die you are a better man than me,” he said.
Mr Thistlethwaite has said he will complain to parliament about the Liberal party using the tax payer funded platform to “lobby and recruit” for the party.
At an earlier hearing on the Sunshine Coast he said the Liberal Party had been handing out fliers. He told the meeting it was an “unethical” and “improper” use of taxpayer funds.
But the hearing’s chair, Liberal MP Tim Wilson, told him that Labor was “just trying to discredit a process that gives Australians a voice.”
And he pointed to “clear political point scoring” by Mr Thistlethwaite during the 90 minute hearing that “clearly overstepped the mark”.
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