Election Results

Election 2016: Voters punished Liberals in Senate over superannuation changes: Senator Chris Back - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

Have mixed feelings on policy given it's backdated to 2007, but my understanding is it's a cap on non-concessional contributions, so people can still put in their 25k/yr concessional cap, and get employer contributions if they're an employee.

I figure if you've got such significant amounts of money that you're punching up against the limit for the non-concessional cap, you're probably not in need of tax concessions to ensure a self-funded retirement.

 

Well I don’t have mixed feelings about Turnbull’s Super changes at all – I reckon they stink to high heaven!
And that’s 100% why I voted for right ring nutbags (not Pauline) in the senate instead of the LNP. Looks like I wasn’t alone.

Looks like MT and Morrison simply rubber-stamped the wishes of left wing treasury boffins without giving the slightest thought to their small business supporter base. Shocking mistake.

My own position is that I’m nearing 50 and have been in the small business arena for most of my working life. Just today I paid the quarterly super for 30-odd employees that work for me. They are all wonderful people but I couldn’t help be a little bit envious as I made the payment that although they are all 20 years younger they all have far superior super balances than me!
(Come to think of it I drive a crappier car than all of them as well lol)
I do have the goal of getting out of business one day and making a fair whack into super to support my own retirement instead of bludging off a tax-payer funded pension but these idiots make it impossible for me to get anywhere near a decent balance where I could achieve this. I normally can’t stomach Labor but it sickens me to say their election policy on Super was way, way superior to what Turnbull and Morrison are defending so staunchly. How stupid are these two men ?

Thing is I would consider myself a typical small business operator and there are thousands in the same boat throughout the country very distressed by the present leadership. So I don’t blame anyone who’s on a steady 38 hrs per week salary for not fully understanding why traditional conservatives are so hopping mad with one fellow in particular. Apologies for the rant.

 

Agree about the tax concessions but remember this is a lifetime cap. A working life could be 50 years or more. It is not just the "well off" that can afford to put (on average) just $10k a year extra into super.

Also recall during the GFC that some people lost 50% of their super value. The lifetime cap only applies once, so what if someone loses 50% of their super but they have also blown the cap? Doesn't really make much sense. The previous annual cap with the 3 year bring forward rule made a lot more sense. Personally, I don't think the lifetime cap has been well thought through.

 

Absolutely, I can see both sides of the argument. It's a matter of trying to find the balance between making the Super system affordable for Government (i.e targeting concessions/incentives to get the most bang for buck and fulfil the systems purpose), and fairness. I guess if there's a limit people will have to invest their after tax earnings outside of super and forgo the tax advantaged treatment if they've hit 500k or whatever hypothetical limit is imposed.

 

The liberal lie that did not fly:

The other scare campaign: Negative gearing

 

Certainly the Libs scare campaign did not cut through. I think Labor's campaign was generally successful hiding the fact that millions of share investors would be impacted by their policy. It's interesting that the article frames the debate around housing affordability and does not mention shareholders, who are equally or more affected by this policy.

 

Final Senate has been announced: 11 crossbenchers. Good ol' Malc will have to learn to play nice with the Senate if he wants any legislation passed.

New force in Senate: One Nation wins four Senate seats

 

Oh Mr Hart what a mess. It's doubtful whether the coalition will even have the numbers to pass their DD trigger bills in a joint sitting. It's usual for the trigger bills to not even face a joint sitting.

This senate should be easier to negotiate with than the last. Until some of the One Nation senators go rogue that is. But Turnbull doesn't have a history of being a good negotiator. Most legislation normally passes with ease. It's only the controversial stuff we hear about. Those bills are unlikely to get Greens support and who knows how the gaggle of other senators will vote. But they're mostly right.

Back to the polls within two years?

 

Oh no! I hope not. MT needs to suck it up and learn to negotiate or step down.

 

Leaders rarely step down. Abbott didn't. Gillard didn't. Rudd didn't. Howard didn't. Hawke didn't. Arguably, all should have for the good of their party and the country. Teflon Pete is the only one I can think of who did in recent, and my political history.

Who would replace him? Whoever it might be would be wise to go straight to an election while they enjoy the honeymoon factor.

Julie Bishop?

 

No idea. But if he went to DD because he couldn't negotiate with the senate to get a worse senate that he can't work with, if he had any decency, he would step down. I know he won't.

Anyway, I hope I am completely wrong and he works with the senate and gets some good legislation passed.

 

I suspect the party would want to give Tony another go. He's popular in the party, but not with voters. That would be disastrous for their electoral chances and the success of the party. I don't think Tony will get another go.

I think Bishop would get the job.

Time will tell, but I think he's got a better senate. You can pretty much assume Labor and the Greens won't support any contentious coalition bills.

So in the last senate Mal was having to negotiate with up to 8 different entities (DLP, LDP, Lazaras, Muir, Lambie, FF, PUP, Xeno) and get 6 of them to agree. Now he only needs to negotiate with 6 entities and get 4 entites to pass bills. That is, till some of the One Nation senators quit the party.

If he manages to get a couple of key bills passed in one term he will have done as good as many PMs before him.

Mal has shown he's not scared of a DD election. If he can't get stuff through the senate and can hang on to the leadership I wouldn't be suprised if he calls another one. Hopefully he would have more triggers up his sleeve before going for a full senate election.

 

The most contentious reform, a $500,000 lifetime cap on non-concessional contributions to a person’s super backdated to start from 2007, has been substantially changed.​

This policy cost them votes at the election and now they have dumped it. Brilliant!

Morrison backflip on $500k lifetime superannuation cap