Bushfire victim says Labor’s retiree tax grab is ‘kicking them while they’re down’
Tathra bushfire victim Megan Rowlands lost almost everything in last year’s blaze and now accuses Labor of kicking her while she is down with its retiree tax grab. She is among 84,000 Aussies who stand to lose thousands a year in income if Labor’s plan go ahead.
NSW
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Tathra bushfire victim Megan Rowlands lost almost everything in last year’s blaze and now accuses Labor of kicking her while she is down with its retiree tax grab.
“The loss of franking credits will certainly make it more difficult to get back on our feet,” Ms Rowlands told a parliamentary hearing into proposed changes to franking credits on Monday.
While she said Tathra residents had no choice but to accept acts of nature, “we don’t have to accept without a fight impositions to our lives that are man made”.
More than 150 angry retirees packed into a function room at Merimbula RSL on the South Coast on Monday to testify how the Opposition policy would deeply impact their lives.
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“This will take ten per cent of my income which is money I cannot afford,” said retired academic Auriol Weigold, 78, who will lose up to $5000 a year.
She is among around 84,000 Australians who stand to lose thousands of dollars a year in income if the Labor plan to remove refunds on fully franked share dividends goes ahead.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has said he “is not for turning” on the policy and has backed shadow treasurer Chris Bowen’s statement that anyone who did not like the policy could vote for someone else.
“I am certainly going to follow their advice and choose carefully who I will vote for,” Ms Weigold said.
Retiree Chris Young told the parliamentary committee hearing that Labor’s plans had “caused me serious anxiety, a lack of sleep and an eating disorder.”
Jonathon Gaul set up his self managed super fund in the 1980s and 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 and said it was money being “confiscated without compensation while neighbours with super in a union industry fund continue to receive franking credits cash refunds in full.”
Mr Gaul said it was not a “fair go” and called the plan a “death tax” that would prevent him from leaving any inheritance for his three children.
Deputy committee chair, Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite, asked: “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.
Mr Thistlethwaite has said he will complain to parliament about the Liberal Party using the taxpayer-funded inquiry to “lobby and recruit” for the party.
At an earlier hearing on the Sunshine Coast he said the Liberal had been handing out flyers. He told the meeting it was an “unethical” and “improper” use of taxpayer funds.
But the hearing’s chair, Liberal MP Tim Wilson, said Labor was “just trying to discredit a process that gives Australians a voice.” And he accused Mr Thistlethwaite of “clear political point scoring” during the hearing.
Mr Thistlethewaite’s claims the tax was not retrospective were met with derision from the audience.
“Of course it is retrospective when we put our … plans together this was part of the cash flow,” said retired scientist Baden Cameron. “We cannot go back to work and start again.”