Nothing ‘modest’ about Labor’s tax attack on wealth

With the proposed changes to superannuation, notably the tax on unrealised gains, and all the attendant expert opinion describing the adverse unintended consequences, how can Treasurer Jim Chalmers repeatedly call these changes “modest” (“A tax condemned: bad policy”, 22/5)?

They are not modest. Ask any farmer or business owner who has planned their retirement for decades. It is divisive and destructive.

Gordon Campbell, Hope Island, Qld

The unrealised capital gains tax proposed by Labor could have only been thought up by people who have never bought or sold a share in their life.

If I bought a speculative share and it increased 100 per cent and I did not sell it, hoping for further gains, then I am taxed on the 100 per cent gain. But then unfortunately the share price collapses and goes to zero. I have lost all my investment stake as well as the tax I have paid. This tax will kill speculation and hence potential company makers in the market. BHP was a speculative share once.

Michael Gray, Dee Why, NSW

Is not Labor’s proposed tax upon unrealised capital gains just another part of its plan to wipe out small business, eradicating those it can’t control?

Surely, given it is likely no one will have the cash to pay the tax, farming businesses in particular will be forced to sell to the Chinese, who will in turn send all their farming product to China? Why not, it will be theirs. Labor, particularly the Albanese brand of Labor government, cannot achieve its clear goal to control the majority, if not all, if small business survives and grows. It is a signal that competition will not be tolerated.

Tony Brownlee, Sydney, NSW

My frustration grows daily that during the election campaign the Coalition failed to convey to Australians that Labor’s proposed tax on unrealised capital gains would not apply to the superannuation of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer (the mastermind behind the policy), public servants, judges and the like. A policy, which most, if not all, economists have stated is bad policy.

It would not have been a scare campaign, but the truth, to explain to Australians that employees in defined benefit superannuation schemes are most likely exempt from the policy. Whereas those in self-managed superannuation funds will be liable for a tax for profits that have not been realised and may never eventuate.

Marie-Antoniette Assenza, Weetangera, ACT

From the timely report by Matthew Cranston, it is absolutely clear that Labor’s planned tax on unrealised capital gains is not good public policy and key recommendations to make the superannuation system fairer have been ignored.

That former Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and former Treasury secretary Ken Henry have spoken out against this iniquitous tax puts the matter beyond doubt. As Henry points out, there are other, more equitable options than this proposed unfair impost.

Earlier in the week, Dimitri Burshtein (“Tax reform sacrificed in attack on wealth”, 19/5) provided a keen analysis that readily explained the nature of the proposed wealth tax. As Burshtein pointed out, the proposed tax is fundamentally flawed in principle, appallingly designed in practice, and little more than a thinly disguised effort by the Albanese government to raise revenue to support its extravagant spending agenda.

On any consideration, it seems that the guiding reform principle of the Albanese Labor government is that axiom enunciated by George Orwell in Animal Farm; namely, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Ian Dunlop, Hawks Nest, NSW

Post-election, many leading business people and academics have rightly pointed out that the government’s plan to tax unrealised gains was poor public policy. Gerry Harvey pointed out it was “stupidity of the highest order”.

Why did the Liberals and Nationals not do the same prior to the election? They should have been screaming from the rafters that this plan was poor public policy and, most importantly, was completely inequitable and would destroy aspiration in this country. Even us non-politicians could see this but apparently not the Liberals and Nationals.

Brian Barker, Bulimba, Qld