Chris Meddows-Taylor writes: Bernard, your comment about the government’s pig-headed “2007 isn’t in the past” defence summarises it brilliantly. Sadly the debate around superannuation changes assume they all relate to ending wealth creation for the rich. The proposed non-concessional lifetime caps of $500,000 retrospectively dated from 1 July 2007 will impact middle Australia including women and people with an inadequate superannuation account who have planned to include an inheritance or other windfall to give them a decent self-funded retirement. If the IPA is leading the attack on this then something must be (and is) very wrong! Surely the solution is make all changes to super prospective taking effect from July 1 2017? The Government’s take will still be substantial.
Coalition of the willing
Douglas Evans writes: Re. “Campaign week one: high-level Turnbull fights guerrilla Shorten” (Friday). Given the long term decline in Labor’s primary vote which shows no sign of slowing (since 1950s down from 50% to mid 30s), the likelihood is that without some sort of coalition agreement on the left, Australia will in future very rarely (if ever) see progressive government. We have a coalition of the right which includes a frighteningly conservative minor partner that somehow manages a disproportionately large representation for the number of votes it attracts, and neither the media nor the public work themselves into a lather over this arrangement. Perhaps when the Greens finally break through and gather a few lower house seats (could be as soon as July) we might begin to see some sort of adult conversation emerge around power sharing.