Election 2025: ‘Complete madness’: Labor’s super tax threatens farms, says NFF

Any re-elected Labor government will have an early fight on its hands over Albanese’s superannuation tax, with warnings it could force the sale of family farms across the nation.

Northwest Tasmanian farmer Nathan Richardson says Labor’s super tax will threaten succession planning and is ‘straight out of the socialism playbook’. Picture: Grant Wells

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Farmers have made an election-eve plea to Labor to dump its “superannuation tax”, warning it could force thousands of farm sell-offs and destroy intergenerational succession plans.

Failing a last-minute backdown by the Albanese government, should it be re-elected on Saturday, the National Farmers’ Federation will lobby teals and crossbenchers to block the super concession changes.

“This is not about yachts and waterfront mansions – it’s about orchards, dairies, family farms,” NFF president David Jochinke told The Australian.

“It’s a blatant raid on generational farms and small businesses. Taxing paper gains on assets that aren’t being sold – and may never be – is complete madness.

“We’re urging Labor to scrap this reckless policy. And we urge every crossbencher heading to Canberra after Saturday to stand firm. Don’t let this become law.”

The changes, blocked in the Senate during the last parliament, double the tax on super funds over $3m to 30 per cent, with no indexation.

Farmers say the changes effectively introduce an annual tax on unrealised gains – including “on paper” asset value increases that may later fall – held in these super funds. They warn there will be a massive impact on many farmers and small business owners who hold farm and business assets in self-managed super funds.

Many older farmers lease these assets to their children to run the farm, providing them retirement income and the next generation a smooth succession.

“Thousands of farmers could be taxed simply because their land value has gone up on paper – no income, no sale; just a tax bill,” Mr Jochinke said. “The super tax is a ticking time bomb for farmers and small business owners.

“It’s not a tax on the rich – it’s a tax on hardworking families who feed, clothe and employ Australians every day.

“For any politician who cares about small business, family farms and the cost-of-living, this legislation should be a hard ‘no’.”

National Farmers Federation president David Jochinke says Labor’s super tax ‘is not about yachts, mansions...it’s about orchards, dairies, farms’.

Farming groups fear some asset-rich but cashflow-poor farmers may need to sell their farms because they cannot pay annual tax bills as a result of the changes. The NFF estimates about 3500 farming families would be immediately affected, with another 14,000 affected once their property values increased above the threshold.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has labelled the changes a “quasi inheritance tax” and vowed to continue to oppose them.

Anthony Albanese has defended the changes as minor and indicated Labor would continue to pursue them in the next parliament. “It will affect – importantly – 0.5 per cent of the superannuation population,” the Prime Minister said. “That’s all.

“And it won’t mean they don’t get concessions. It will just mean the concession isn’t as large. That’s our policy.”

Tasmanian farmer Nathan Richardson says the proposed super tax ‘is deplorable’. Picture: Grant Wells

On Friday, a spokesman for Treasurer Jim Chalmers said while Labor “listens respectfully to the NFF”, it was “not considering a change to the policy, which still provides a concessional rate of tax for the half a per cent of people with more than $3m in super”.

Northwest Tasmanian mixed farmer Nathan Richardson said the changes could disrupt his family’s succession planning and were an unfair “socialist” cash grab.

“To hear from a colour of politics that they are now going to tax us annually on something that technically doesn’t yet exist, that’s a new low,” he said.

“It’s a real kick in the guts for people who have generated wealth through hard work and paid a lot of tax along the way.

“It’s straight out of the socialism playbook. Unfortunately, there’s no votes in the bush. It’s deplorable.”

Three generations – his parents, he and wife Janine, and their two adult children – were connected to the family sheep, poultry, vegetable and cereal farm.

“It will definitely affect our succession planning,” he said, adding that $3m was not a high threshold in terms of total farm assets.