Jim Chalmers vague on tabling of super tax

Jim Chalmers is waiting on discussions with colleagues and crossbenchers to introduce his super tax changes.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Canberra on Monday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Labor is undecided as to when it will introduce its plan for an unrealised capital gains tax on superannuation accounts.

Jim Chalmers on Monday said the plan to introduce unrealised capital gains tax on superannuation accounts of $3m or more without indexation would depend on discussions with cabinet colleagues and meetings with the Greens, which are yet to be ­secured.

Anthony Albanese has already dictated that the first piece of legislation to be introduced when the new parliament begins next Monday would be student loan relief.

Asked whether he would introduce the super tax changes soon after and within the first fortnight, the Treasurer said he was undecided.

“We haven’t taken a decision on that yet. There will be discussions to be had with colleagues and with crossbench,” Dr Chalmers said.

“The start of parliament is pretty congested with lots of demands on everybody’s time.”

Dr Chalmers has repeatedly said that winning the May federal election gave Labor a mandate for the super tax changes and that he would not change the legislation, nor be open to alternative pro­posals at the upcoming economic reform roundtable.

“We’re not changing policies we took to the election; we’ve got a mandate for that change,” he said.

“What we’re looking for here is not an opportunity at the roundtable to cancel policies that we’ve got a mandate for,” he said in June.

A petition launched by Wilson Asset Management chairman Geoff Wilson against Labor’s unrealised capital gains tax has collected more than 18,000 signa­tures in six weeks, far in excess of the petition he ran against Labor’s 2019 franking credits policy.

At the weekend, hedge fund manager John Hempton said he thought Labor did have a mandate for the unrealised gains tax but that it was similar to the kind of mandate that US President Donald Trump had with his tariff and immigration policies.

“I think he probably should have to get it through congress, but, alas, yes – similar,” Mr Hempton posted on social media site X.

On Monday, the Treasurer emphasised again that “other people might bring” ideas on superannuation tax to the economic reform roundtable, but “That’s not been something that we’ve been working on”.

He said his office was still organising discussions with the Greens economic spokesman, Nick McKim.

The Greens want the threshold to be lowered to $2m and to include indexation.

The Financial Services Council estimates that in the worst-case scenario of a $2m threshold and no indexation, more than 1.8 million Australians would be hit by the tax by the time they retired.

“The Greens have been very constructive about it, privately and publicly in the discussions between the offices,” Dr Chalmers said.

“I have not had a direct ­conversation with Senator McKim as yet.

“We will have a discussion at some stage, recognising that we can’t pass legislation in the Senate on our own.”

The plan is for the tax to be backdated to July 1 this year.

It is expected to raise $40bn over the next decade.

Asked whether he would consider GST reform if the states brought forward a plan that met criteria such as revenue neutrality, Dr Chalmers said it was unlikely.

“I think both the Prime Minister and I have made it pretty clear when it comes to the GST, we’ve had a view about that historically, and that view hasn’t changed,” he said.

“We’ve tried to have a ­relatively open mind, but you’ve all heard me talk about the GST before, and you all would have noticed what the Prime Minister said about the GST in the last few days.”