Tuesday, 14 October 2025



EO&E

Peter Stefanovic Despite the changes, the Federal Opposition claim the Treasurer's authority has been diminished over his strident defense of the proposal, which was strident until it wasn't. Joining us live now, Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tim Wilson, who was one of the chief agitators of the original plan. Let's start off with your reaction to these changes, Tim.

Tim Wilson Well, of course, it's welcome to see that there is a back down because for two years, or longer, three years, Jim Chalmers refused to listen to anybody about not just the fundamental failures of his policy, more importantly that it was technically impossible to implement, more to the point it was setting a precedent that once it was implemented would be replicated under other assets, including the family home trust, small businesses and the like. But what it really highlights is that you can't trust this Government on tax, when they're putting a policy proposal forward, if they can't find a way to broaden it out and hit other people, then they're going to have to look at ways to retreat because they've been exposed.

Peter Stefanovic Right, is there some applause, just taking a different approach, should there be some applause, let's put it that way, for the Treasurer in that he's recognised, right, there's an issue here, I won't press ahead with it, I'll walk back, I'll take the criticism on notice and we'll try a different approach. Is there any sort of thanks from your part about that?

Tim Wilson Well if we had of done that in response to the initial criticism and engagement, but instead there was a dogged persistence that they were right. They hounded down and shouted down anybody who raised any criticism, demonised anybody who raised legitimate criticism and insisted this would be going forward then banked the expenditure in their budget. But they're persisting with their war on self-managed superannuation funds, and this is the critical point. Labor is the party of Industry Super Funds and mobilised capital, and they're still going after Australians' retirement savings. They're just targeting a narrower band in the hope that they'll be able to get their plan through.

Peter Stefanovic Well the idea is that they can afford it now, particularly for those with balances above 10 million.

Tim Wilson Plan to hit a narrow group of people and broaden it out. Before they started too low and so they realised they were going to get a big backlash from it, now they're just starting a bit higher and they're just going to continue to expand out their plan. This is ultimately part of a longer term plan to hit SMSFs to try and force people into the funds that they control and to be able to mobilise and control the retirement savings of Australians under the Labor Party.

Peter Stefanovic So will you support this revised plan? Sounds like you won't.

Tim Wilson We're waiting to see the detail because, as Jim Chalmers has basically acknowledged himself, he didn't understand his plan to date. We're waiting to see the consequences of it and the detail. If Jim Chalmers didn't understand it three years ago when he first put it forward, to the extent that he's now been forced to back down on it, I think it's a bit much for us to be asked to just sign up to it now, when we haven't seen the details.

Peter Stefanovic So is there room to move on those super high super balances?

Tim Wilson Well, again, there's always a conversation we're happy to have. We're the Party of lower taxes and we want lower taxes, but what we're not prepared to sign up for, I think, is a plan which is just designed to smash self-managed superannuation funds. And that, to me, seems to be the consistent focus of Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Peter Stefanovic All right, we'll leave it there, Tim. Thank you. We'll chat again soon.

ENDS