90 SECONDS: QUESTION TIME About Government’s New Super Tax

Thank you, Mr Speaker, my question is to the Assistant Treasurer and concerns the Government’s new super tax.

If an Australian who owns an asset through his or her superannuation fund receives a tax bill because of an unrealised gain in one year, but this asset is subsequently revalued resulting in a loss, will that Australian be eligible for a refund of the tax paid?

Speaker: I give the call to the Assistant Treasurer. The Assistant Treasurer has the call.

Assistant Treasurer (Steven Jones MP): I thank the Honourable Member for his question.

It’s a good question. And, it’s why when we have announced the policy to ensure that we can maintain the integrity of superannuation and superannuation tax concessions, which are costing the budget in excess of $50 billion a year, more than we spend on Medicare, more than we spend on the NDIS – significant budget expenditure.

It’s why when we announced this policy we put in place a lengthy period for the implementation of it, and a lengthy period to ensure that we can consult on some of these details, including details which go to the question that the Honourable member has asked about the capacity to bring losses forward or backward.

We will consult on the specific design implementation of these issues as any Government would, and indeed as the previous Government did when they introduced their $6 billion worth of taxation changes to the superannuation system.