Ray Hadley likes to think he knows a thing or two on just about anything, but even he was stumped by the treasurer's attempt to explain budget changes to superannuation.
"This is harder than Chinese arithmetic," the outspoken radio 2GB broadcaster told Scott Morrison on Tuesday.
The treasurer had just spent eight minutes giving Hadley the ins-and-outs of what the government was planning to do to rein in the excesses of a system being exploited by high-income earners.
Earlier, his assistant Kelly O'Dwyer sought to debunk the myths surrounding the changes, blaming them on base politicking.
"They ought to be dispelled," she wrote in a written version of the treasurer's spiel to Hadley.
Not true, she said of the myth that individuals will be forced to remove money from the superannuation system if they have more than $1.6 million in their account or have contributed more than $500,000 on a non-concessional basis in the past.
Ditto the myth that the $1.6 million transfer balance cap to a retirement account means the government will be imposing retrospective taxation.
Same goes for the myth that tax will now be paid on amounts withdrawn from an accumulation account.
And it wasn't true there were no winners from the changes.
All but four per cent of Australians with superannuation would be unaffected or better off, Ms O'Dwyer said.
"Most importantly, they include future generations who will benefit from a sustainable superannuation system and reduced dependence on the age pension," she said.
Share
