I have been encouraged by the surveys sent back to my office as part of Mallee’s Biggest Survey - 2025 edition.  You can go to my website www.annewebster.com.au to share your views through the survey and as always,  email me at anne.webster.mp@aph.gov.au if you have more to say.

It is my honour to be officially sworn in this fortnight in Canberra as your Member for Mallee in the 48th Federal Parliament.  Amid a week of pomp and ceremony, the spectre hanging over Canberra was the release of Treasury advice to Jim Chalmers that he would need to cut spending and raise taxes to get his budget back into balance.

This brings me to the globally unprecedented new tax on unrealised capital gains within Labor’s new superannuation legislation. Unrealised capital gains are increases in asset value purely on paper, not actual gains because the asset, e.g. the farm or business premises, which has not been sold. Some farmers have told me they will have to sell some land to pay the yearly tax grab. How does this help productivity?

The National Farmers Federation said Labor’s new super tax is their number one concern in the 48th parliament.

Labor’s asset tax grab on superannuation balances over $3 million will reap over $2 billion in taxes in its first year of operation alone - and over $40 billion in the next decade.   Labor’s $3 million threshold is not being indexed to rise with inflation, meaning when younger Australians retire, millions of Australians will be caught by the tax.

Treasurer Chalmers has also included a sneaky clause giving him the power to tax you even harder without putting it through Parliament.

This tax grab is a Trojan Horse and to mix a metaphor, beware the Greens bearing gifts.

Labor can pass legislation in the Senate with the Greens’ support alone.  The Greens want a $2 million threshold, which would immediately rake in $8 billion a year.

Labor also claims their new asset tax grab applies from 1 July 2025 but the Bill has not yet even gone through parliament.