Bill Shorten ‘must have forgotten’ Labor’s plan for changes that will bring in $34bn in revenue, Scott Morrison says

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Scott Morrison has seized on Bill Shorten’s claim he will not introduce new taxes on superannuation, claiming he “must have forgotten” Labor’s plan for changes that will bring in $34bn in revenue.

The hiccup in the Shorten campaign on Tuesday distracted from Labor’s claim the Coalition will have to cut $40bn a year from social spending to pay for its tax cut package.

Labor’s campaign centres on its promise to increase social spending and deliver more sustainable budget surpluses, due to revenue measures such as its plan to raise $34bn from superannuation.

The Labor policy promises to undo Coalition changes by lowering the high income threshold to $200,000 and the annual non-concessional contributions cap to $75,000 from 1 July 2019.

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On Tuesday Shorten was asked if he could “rule out new or increased taxes on superannuation”.

He replied that Labor has “no plans to increase taxes on superannuation”, apparently taking the question to refer to any further changes after the plan to raise $34bn.

“We have no plans to introduce any new taxes on superannuation,” Shorten told reporters in Adelaide. Asked to rule it out, he replied: “Sure.”

Morrison said the Coalition’s changes had ensured that small business people could make superannuation contributions at the same concessional rates as employees who work for wages, warning that “Labor wants to change all that”.

“I have no idea what Bill Shorten was talking about today when he says he won’t be putting increased taxes on superannuation,” Morrison told reporters in Torquay, Victoria.

“That’s his policy. There’s $34 billion worth of increased taxes on superannuation in his own policy.

“He’s either lying about it today or he’s just forgotten the last person he hit with higher taxes.”

Labor spent Tuesday attacking the government using Grattan Institute modelling that the Coalition will have to cut social spending by $40bn a year to pay for its package of tax cuts for middle and high income earners, to start in 2022 and 2024.

The shadow treasurer Chris Bowen argued last Wednesday that the Coalition’s 2019 budget had “miraculously” assumed that the payments to GDP ratio will fall from 25% to around 23.6% by the end of the decade”, implying an unexplained cut to government services.

An analysis by the Grattan Institute has warned that “achieving such a reduction [in spending] would require significant cuts in spending growth across almost every major spending area, during a period when we know that an ageing population will increase spending pressures, particularly in health and welfare”.

On Tuesday, Morrison dismissed the analysis as “absolute, complete rubbish” but did not explain the projected fall in government payments.

He was similarly dismissive of Tony Abbott’s suggestion at a candidates forum on Monday that the former prime minister is willing to resume the leadership of the Liberal party if his parliamentary colleagues draft him.

“I think Tony was responding to a question that was very hypothetical,” Morrison said.

The Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos told ABC TV the payments to GDP ratio would fall because the Coalition had reduced spending growth to “about 1.9%” in real terms.

“Spending may go down as a proportion of GDP, partly because the economy continues to get bigger and bigger and a stronger economy means there’s a bigger pie,” he said.