Joe Hockey has left the door open to enact future changes to superannuation, just hours after Tony Abbott vowed the government was “not going to touch” the existing arrangements.
Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Hockey said the commitment not to touch the tax applied only while super returns were low.
“Our view is, in the current environment, given you have got very low returns on superannuation, it is not the time to introduce new taxes on superannuation, it is not the time to change the rules for superannuants,” Hockey said.
“We want to give stability and certainty. That is a stark contrast with our political opponents who want to impose a new tax on super.”
The comments offer more room for movement on making changes than those made by Abbott earlier on Monday.
“We understand that superannuation, it’s not the government’s money, it’s the people’s money,” the prime minister said. “That is why we are not going to touch it.”
Labor wants to impose a 15% tax on super earnings of more than $75,000 a year and tax super contributions for incomes of more than $250,000.
The treasurer also promised to have discussions with his state and territory counterparts on removing the 10% GST on products such as tampons and sanitary pads.
He promised university student Subeta Vimalajarah, whose petition “stop taxing my period” has more than 92,000 signatures, that he would discuss the issue with the states and territories at the next treasurers’ meeting in July.
When asked by Q&A host Tony Jones if the GST should be taken off the items, Hockey replied: “It probably should, yes. The answer is yes.”
“What happened was when it [the GST] was negotiated through the Senate by the Howard government, the Democrats had a list of things they wanted excluded and they didn’t have sanitary products on it so it didn’t happen,” Hockey said.
Items such as condoms and sunscreen are exempt from the tax, on the premise they are health products.
The Howard government, which introduced the GST in 2000, included the tax on sanitary products, arguing they were “luxury items”.
The classification prompted outrage from women’s groups and consumer advocates, who unsuccessfully petitioned the Howard government and the successive Rudd government for the removal of the tax on the items.
Howard government health minister Michael Wooldridge drew fire from members of his own party for his insensitive handling of the issue.
“Well, condoms prevent illness,” he said in 2000 when asked why the items were exempt from the GST. “I wasn’t aware that menstruation was an illness.”
“It’s adding insult to injury, because initially tampons and sanitary napkins weren’t taxed,” government backbencher Trish Draper said. “Now that women are facing this extra tax, I really don’t think that it is fair and I certainly can understand why they’re very angry and outraged.”
