The Council on the Ageing has called on the Coalition not to water down proposed superannuation changes after signs from senior government figures that it is preparing to do so.
The chief executive of the leading seniors’ organisation, Ian Yates, said the calls to reverse or modify the policy were “based on a weak narrative about selected poor election results and fewer well-heeled supporters manning polling booths”.
The innovation minister, Christopher Pyne, said on Monday that tinkering around the edges was “perfectly normal” and the social services minister, Christian Porter, said exceptions to the $500,000 cap on non-concessional contributions could be built into the policy.
Their comments came after the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, indicated a possible backdown on Sunday by saying he was “listening” to concerns about the policy and there was “work to be done” on its implementation.
The policy, announced in the 6 May budget, has come under criticism from Tony Abbott supporters including the dumped minister Eric Abetz, the outspoken conservative backbencher Cory Bernardi and the Queensland MP George Christensen.
It will be discussed at the first Liberal party room meeting since the election in Canberra on Monday.
Yates said Coalition dissenters had “given air to the complaints of a privileged minority created space during the campaign for Labor to ‘dog whistle’ a so-called threat to super; while later banking the whole of the savings from the super reforms”.
Any harm to the Coalition at the election was the product of “misinformation” because only those at the very top end would lose out, he said.
In an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review, the Grattan Institute’s chief executive, John Daley, noted the proposed $25,000 annual cap on pre-tax super contributions would have most effect on older men with higher incomes.
Yates said the Coalition now had an obligation to voters who had returned it to government to deliver the changes, which the government argues will help make the superannuation system more fair and recoup some of the $25bn of forgone revenue from super tax breaks.
“The notion that super tax breaks are some kind of reward for Liberal party supporters’ votes, donations and turning up to polling booths is macabre and disturbing,” he said.
Porter told Radio National superannuation changes were “not a major factor” in the 2016 federal election.
He rejected the view there was a conservative groundswell against them, as he, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, were conservatives and all supported them.
Porter said the fundamentals of the policy were correct because it was irresponsible to allow people to accumulate $2m to $3m in superannuation and pay no tax on earnings. “The policy is correct … The policy was taken to the election and tested, and we won.”
But he said concerns about the policy were legitimate and a “range of issues” could be addressed during the drafting process.
Asked about exceptions to the $500,000 cap on non-concessional contributions such as gifts and inheritance, Porter said the cap was integral to the policy but “every rule has exceptions to it” and it was “not inconceivable” that limited exceptions could be included in drafting.
Porter said the Coalition had made it “absolutely clear” how revenue would be raised through superannuation changes. By contrast, he said, Labor had claimed it would save the same amount without detail to explain how.
On Monday opposition leader, Bill Shorten, reiterated Labor’s call for an inquiry to consider whether super changes are retrospective and how many Australians’s retirement savings would be affected.
Shorten said Turnbull had given an “iron clad” guarantee he would make the super changes but just two weeks after the election the policy had unraveled due to internal dissent.
He said an inquiry would help restore certainty to the system and fix the “omnishambles” of the Liberal policy on super.
Pyne told Channel Nine’s Today program that the Coalition had always said there would be a “period of transition” to work out the final details of the policy. The “overall policy remains the same but in framing that final policy before it goes to the legislation there may well be some tinkering around the edges”, he said.
“That is perfectly normal, and it is good government.”
Pyne also brushed off concerns that Abbott had snubbed Turnbull’s invitation to attend a dinner event for government MPs at The Lodge in Canberra on Sunday evening.
He said Abbott had been prime minister until September 2015 but now “how he chooses to conduct himself in terms of coming to party events is really not very important in terms of the government of the country”.
