JOURNALIST:
$3 million, why that threshold if you're talking about budget prudence? 2 million seems like you're still doing pretty well in super, 1.5. Why not lower it and get more money?
JIM CHALMERS:
Different groups have proposed to us different thresholds, we think $3 million strikes the right balance. It means 99 and a half per cent of people in the system are unaffected. And even for the half per cent of people who are affected, they can still access generous tax breaks, just a little bit less generous, so we think it strikes the right balance. It raises about $2 billion a year when it's properly up and running after the election. That is a modest but meaningful change. The changes that we announced yesterday, are about making superannuation more sustainable by making the tax breaks more affordable, and in the process, making the Budget more responsible. Overwhelmingly, this is about one thing, responsible economic management. And Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor can jump up and down about this, they want to go to the wall for people who've got $100 million in their superannuation account. If they don't want to support this change, they have to nominate where the money will come from instead. The last time they were in government, Peter Dutton came after Medicare.
JOURNALIST:
Just on another matter, why did you block a Chinese‑linked investment fund from increasing its stake in an Australian rare earth producer?
CHALMERS:
I made that decision based on the advice of the Foreign Investment Review Board, and consistent with other decisions taken by other governments in the past. Beyond that, I don't intend to comment.
JOURNALIST:
Super funds are calling on you to divert some of the savings to pay women super on paid parental leave to close the gender pay gap, is that something that's on the table?
CHALMERS:
This change that we're proposing is about repairing the Budget. And what we want to do is to ensure that this $2 billion a year in tax concessions for people with very large superannuation balances, is instead directed towards trying to get on top of the mess that we inherited from our predecessors. We inherited a trillion dollars in debt, deficits as far as the eye can see, some of the pressures on the Budget are intensifying rather than easing. And that's why we need to take difficult decisions to try and get on top of that. So our change is about making the Budget more responsible by making superannuation tax concessions more sustainable and more affordable over time. We have said separately, that we would like to find a way to pay the superannuation guarantee on paid parental leave. Our superannuation system is absolutely world class, but it's got at least two big imperfections ‑ the cost of the tax breaks for people who don't need them, and the gender gap in balances. We've said, including last Monday in a speech I gave about superannuation, that when we can afford to pay superannuation guarantee on paid parental leave, we would like to, but this change that we announced yesterday is about budget repair.
JOURNALIST:
Once you make one change like this, you never flagged ahead of the election, you can see why there will be a scare campaign that you're willing to do other things for tax breaks. Can you explicitly say now to the Australian people, there'll be no changes to negative gearing, nothing to capital gains tax this term?
CHALMERS:
If you can let me finish, what we said was, we looked right across the tax concessions, we recognise that a third of the $150 billion in the 10 biggest tax breaks are in superannuation. And that's where the government should and is directing its efforts. This is a modest but meaningful change in one area of the tax system. That's our priority, that's our focus. That's what we intend to implement by legislating this term but having it in place ready to go next term. We are taking this change to the people, and that's important.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible]
CHALMERS:
I've said repeatedly that the numbers that we released yesterday are not a statement of intent, they're not a policy statement. Those other areas are not the areas that we've been working up. We've been working up this change in the last few weeks on superannuation. In the course of last week, we gave the Australian people a sense of the sorts of budget pressures that we're grappling with. And in grappling with those pressures, we think that superannuation is the best place to do it, and we found a way to do it without messing with the fundamentals of the system, without making major changes. There are still tax concessions for everybody in the system but for people who have got more than $3 million, those concessions are a little bit less generous. We think we've struck the right balance, fairer, more sustainable, more affordable, more responsible, and superannuation is our focus. Thanks very much.