Uniting Church in Australia
Northern Synod

UnitingCare Australia has called on the Federal Government to reconsider limiting tax concessions for superannuation contributions for the richest Australians in order to fund other public policy priorities.

National Director, Lin Hatfield Dodds said recent Treasury analysis shows that superannuation concessions led to foregone tax revenue of $32 million this year and anticipated foregone revenue of $45 million in 2015.

“In 2010 the top 10 per cent of the population in terms of income got 38 per cent of the superannuation tax concessions, or $8.3 billion,” Ms Hatfield Dodds said.

“As a government, if you had $30 billion to spend, would you give $10 billion to the wealthiest Australians and nothing to your poorest citizens?

“Should we, as tax payers, be supporting five per cent of the most wealthy to retire well? Or should we take that money and do some other things with it.

“The Australian community has been very clear that it wants to see a national disability insurance scheme and that they want investment in health, education and essential social services.

“These are priorities the government should consider ahead of concessions for some of the wealthiest Australians.

“Once hailed one of Labor’s major economic reforms of the 90s some commentators suggest compulsory super has become of ‘rort’ for the rich.

“The Government was considering imposing an exit tax on super pay-outs for Australians with balances over $1m but the Prime Minister ruled this out yesterday during question time.

“UnitingCare Australia urges the Government to reconsider its position on this important issue in the lead up to the 2013 Federal Budget,” Mrs Hatfield Dodds said.

Issue 7 February 2013.

The UnitingCare network provides social services to over 2 million people each year in 1,300 sites in remote, rural and metropolitan Australia. UnitingCare employs 35,000 staff and 24,000 volunteers.