Today’s announced changes to super tax concessions by the Prime Minister and Treasurer are a welcome step towards fairness and sustainability for Australia’s retirement income system.

The changes come after more than 15 years research from the Australia Institute into the inequitable and unsustainable super tax breaks for multimillionaires, with our most recent research on the issue published just weeks ago.

• Recent Australia Institute research revealed that super tax concessions cost more than the entire NDIS, and are on par with the entire Aged Pension
• New regime would apply to accounts of more than $3m, increasing concessional tax rate to 30%, up from 15%
• New changes will affect 0.5% or 80,000 individuals, with 99.5% of people unaffected
• The Australia Institute has been conducting research into unsustainable super tax breaks for more than 15 years

“The expensive and inequitable tax breaks for multi-million dollar super accounts should have been retired long ago, ” said Dr. Richard Denniss from the Australia Institute.

“The Australia Institute has been publishing research for over a 15 years on the unsustainable and inequitable nature of superannuation tax concessions.

“It was always unfair and unsustainable to provide lucrative tax breaks to multimillionaires while refusing to raise the rate of the Aged Pension or JobSeeker for people doing it tough.

“While this is a great first step, more reform is needed to ensure fairness and sustainability in Australia’s retirement income system.”