Interview with Peter Stefanovic on Sky News First Edition

Subjects: Tax on unrealised gains, Labor’s housing bills, Budget deficit predictions

E&OE………

Peter Stefanovic

The Albanese Government appears to have jettisoned its own plan to increase taxes on super accounts worth more than $3 million. Hey, everyone, I love talking about tax in the morning, and so does Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg. He joins us now. Andrew, good to see you. What are your thoughts on this?

Senator Bragg

Good morning, Pete. Well, this is always a very bad idea, the idea that we would have a higher tax burden on superannuation funds. Of course, you only need to have more taxes if you can't run the Budget properly. So, the idea, though, was quite crazy. It would have taxed unrealised gains. It wouldn't have applied to people like the Prime Minister. I think it was always a bit of a crazy idea, and I'm pleased that they've junked it.

Peter Stefanovic

Well, you might have seen in the US recently, I certainly did, there was a plan by the Democrats to tax unrealised gains, which was a major concern for small businesses, and unsurprisingly, they voted against it and went with Donald Trump. Why would you think that taxing something that hasn't happened yet is a good idea?

Senator Bragg

Well, there's a very good reason that all the accounting principles work in this way - that you only tax profit, you don't tax revenue, and therefore, the idea of taxing something that hasn't actually been realised would have been crazy. But this is Jim Chalmers at work. I mean the Government has been hopeless on economics, and this is why they haven't been able to solve the major challenges of the day on inflation and housing.

Peter Stefanovic

Hey, if that was indexed, if that $3 million was indexed, would it have more support? Or would it have your support even?

Senator Bragg

Look, I think the concept was always bad, and we would never have supported it. If Labor had found a way to legislate this, we would have repealed it in government. So, I don't think there's any way you could have fixed this. And as I said before, the Prime Minister himself was going to exempt himself from this very tax measure that he may have been subject to.

Peter Stefanovic

A couple of other issues this morning, Andrew, is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership. Your thoughts on the Greens folding on the Government's twin housing policies?

Senator Bragg

Well, these two housing policies are terrible. One of them is 'Build to Rent', which is about giving foreign fund managers tax cuts to build houses, that Australians will never own. And the other one is 'Help to Buy' where the Government owns almost half your house. A very ugly idea, both of which we would never support. I'm disappointed to see the Greens capitulate, but we'll have to fix it if we win government.

Peter Stefanovic

How would you fix it?

Senator Bragg

Well, we wouldn't have these schemes...

Peter Stefanovic

You'd just roll it back?

Senator Bragg

We would repeal these schemes. We think that there are much more practical ways to help get the houses built on the supply side, and there are better ways to tilt the scales for first-home buyers.

Peter Stefanovic

Final one here. The Treasurer, as you might have just seen in my chat with Deloitte a short time ago, he's got himself a $50 billion slump in numbers. Deloitte just mentioned that it was almost an inevitability because good times can't last. High commodity prices have gone for now. What do you put all that down to? What are your thoughts on that?

Senator Bragg

Well, I think the Budget strategy has been very peculiar because while they brag about their two surpluses they've delivered, over the long term, they've locked the Budget into a very bad structural deficit. So clearly, that's why they've needed to flag raising taxes like the one we've just canvased on super. They need to raise more taxes to fund their deficits, which they have locked into the Budget over the longer term. So, it's a very bad economic legacy for Dr Chalmers.

Peter Stefanovic

We'll leave it there, Andrew Bragg. Thanks for your time.

[Ends] - Media Contact: David Nouri - 0401 392 624