Liberals flip-flopping on super tax talks, Jim Chalmers says

Labor and the opposition are slinging mud over the Albanese government’s controversial super tax.

Jim Chalmers is claiming the opposition is flip-flopping on super tax talks as the mudslinging over the controversial proposal intensifies.

The Treasurer has accused the Coalition of shutting the door on negotiations to pass a version of the reforms through the Senate when parliament resumes in August.

His opposition counterpart Ted O’Brien has accused him of doing the same and choosing to deal with the Greens instead.

Mr Chalmers said on Thursday there was “a lot of disunity in the Coalition” on the tax.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Coalition is flip-flopping on super tax talks. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“First of all, on my opposite number, one day he said he wanted to have a discussion about it, the next day he said that he didn’t,” he told the ABC.

“There’s a lot of disunity in the Coalition over this.

“They seem to have different views amongst them and different views from day to day.”

Mr Chalmers also said the Albanese government had “been very clear from the beginning we don’t have the numbers in the Senate to pass our legislation on our own”.

“We need to engage with the crossbench in particular in this instance, and I intend to do that,” he said.

“And I’ll have discussions with the spokesperson from the Greens, Nick McKim, whose appointment was announced yesterday.

“I’ll have discussions with him between now and the parliament returning.

“But our intention, our preference, is to legislate the plan that we announced almost 2½ years ago now.”

Critics have blasted the proposal to roll back concessions on ultra-high super balances as a tax on unrealised gains that would penalise younger generations down the track.

Only half a per cent of Australians – some 80,000 – have super balances north of $3m.

But Labor has admitted that 1.2m superannuants would be captured within 30 years.

The Albanese government has also argued that super holders in the top half per cent would still be eligible for “generous” concessions and it was fair that they contribute more.

Also speaking to the ABC, the shadow treasurer accused Mr Chalmers of framing himself as a “modern-day Robin Hood”.

Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O’Brien says Labor ‘is not being upfront’ about the super tax. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“The Treasurer is not being upfront,” Mr O’Brien said.

“And the reason is he’s wanting to pretend he’s sort of some modern-day Robin Hood, taking from the fat cats with multimillion-dollar portfolios to fund the good deeds of government.

“That’s not right because they’re not indexing it, which means a young person today who earns average salary, pays the super contributions over time, they will get paid into the super account – they’re going to hit that threshold which is why you have got organisations like Wilson Asset Management saying that over eight million Australians will end up paying this over the next few decades.”

Anthony Albanese again defended the policy, telling reporters in Melbourne there was “not anything new here”.

“This has been before the parliament for about two years,” the Prime Minister said.

“What we need to do is make sure that our superannuation system is fair. That is what we are setting out to do.”

Originally published as Liberals flip-flopping on super tax talks, Jim Chalmers says