Anthony Albanese is accused of breaking campaign pledge of 11 words on pensions

Anthony Albanese has been accused of breaking a key campaign promise after the Prime Minister announced Australians would lose out on more than $3million in tax breaks.

During last year’s election campaign, Mr Albanese told a Sky News reporter that he would not interfere with pension schemes if Labor were elected.

“We said we have no intention of making any super changes,” he said.

But the Prime Minister announced on Tuesday that Australia’s wealthiest 0.5 per cent of individuals would double their super-contribution tax rate to 30 per cent, up from 15 per cent from 1 July 2025.

Mr Albanese stressed that the reduced rate of 15 per cent would continue to apply to the 99.5 per cent of Australians with less than $3 million in retirement savings.

Seven News political editor Mark Riley suggested Tuesday’s announcement of budget cuts of $2 billion a year amounted to a broken campaign promise on pensions as he faced a media conference in Canberra.

“You had no intention of changing it, you had no intention of making any major changes,” Riley said.

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Anthony Albanese has been accused of breaking a key campaign promise after the Prime Minister announced Australians would lose out on more than $3million in tax breaks

“What absolute commitment can you give to the 99.5 per cent of Australians who will not be affected by this change, that you will not mess with their Super?”

Mr Albanese suggested the 80,000 Australians who will be paying more tax on their Super are particularly wealthy.

“It’s hard to argue that those amounts are about actual retirement income, which is what retirement savings are meant for,” he said.

The Prime Minister pointed to figures showing 17 Australians had more than $100m in their retirement accounts – including a mystery person who had more than $400m in Super.

But on May 2, 2022 – when Mr Albanese was still leader of the opposition – he promised there would be no major changes to the pension.

Then Mr Albanese was asked about retirement taxes and supercaps by Sky News reporter Julia Bradley.

“We said we have no intention of making any super changes,” he said.

“One of the things we’re doing in this campaign is we’re all making our policies clear and making them visible for everyone to see.”

During a media conference in Canberra, Seven News political editor Mark Riley hinted that Tuesday’s announcement of budget cuts of $2 billion a year would amount to a broken campaign promise

Mr Albanese is far from the only prime minister accused of breaking a promise.

Former Labor leader Julia Gillard promised Ten News in August 2010 that there would be no carbon tax “under the government I lead” – only to introduce one in 2011, when the ALP relied on the Greens and left-leaning regional independents for power to keep in a minority government.

Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard had said – as opposition leader – at a business lunch in Sydney in May 1995 that there would ‘never’ be a GST, but he put this excise policy to the voters in a bid to win a mandate ahead of the 1998 election after gaining power in 1996.

The Albanian government’s changes would only come into effect on July 1, 2025, after the next elections, meaning voters still have a chance to make their verdict on politics.

But shadow treasurer Angus Taylor accused Mr Albanese and his treasurer Jim Chalmers of breaching a duty to voters.

“Well, another day, another broken campaign promise by the Labor Party,” he said.

“Today we saw the Prime Minister and Treasurer back off their commitment not to add tax to the pension.

Former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised Ten News no carbon tax in August 2010, only to introduce one in 2011 when the ALP leaned on the Greens and left-leaning regional independents to retain power in a minority government

“This was a clear commitment from the Prime Minister – he said he would not tax Australian superseconds.”

The crackdown on those with more than $3 million in Super will save Treasury coffers by $2 billion.

The 15 percent concessionary tax rate for supercontributions costs the budget $53 billion a year, with Dr. Chalmers argues that this is almost as much as the retirement pension.

The reduced tax rate of 15 percent is well below the marginal tax rate of 45 percent for those earning more than $180,000.

That threshold will increase to $200,000 on July 1, 2024, when Stage Three income tax cuts take effect — costing $254 billion over a decade.

Labor introduced mandatory super-contributions in 1992 when Paul Keating was Prime Minister, but the Howard government introduced the concessional 15 percent tax rate for super-contributions in 2006.

Controversial tax policies are making reelection battles difficult, with Labor losing its majority in 2010 after announcing a mining tax and the coalition losing 14 seats in 1998 when Mr Howard campaigned for a 10 per cent GST.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk