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The opposition is branding changes to superannuation tax as an attack on aspirational Australians, as the treasurer says the new rate is modest.
The concessional tax rate applied to future earnings for balances above $3 million will be lifted from 15 per cent to 30 per cent from 2025/26.
It will impact about 80,000 Australians and is expected to raise $2 billion in the first full year and $3.2 billion over five years.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the changes are modest and responsible economic management.
"The changes are about making superannuation more sustainable by making the tax breaks more affordable," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the coalition would repeal the legislation if it came to power.
"We're dead against it. We're not going to stand by and watch Australians attacked," he told reporters in Melbourne.
Mr Dutton said the government's language about minor changes didn't mean anything to hardworking Australians who put their money into super.
"Every Australian should be unsettled by what Labor is doing at the moment," he said.
"The first change will be on higher-income Australians. The next change will be on people on the next rung down and the next rung down after that."
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the government wasn't being honest about the number of Australians the change would impact with the $3 million threshold not indexed and more people creeping above it as inflation rises.
"This is an attack on aspirational middle Australia," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The Labor Party should be honest about how many Australians who are investing 20, 30, even 40 years ahead of their retirement will really be affected."
Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the government's pledge to not have the new rules apply retrospectively wasn't good enough
She said the legislation won't be grandfathered, affecting people who invested in the past under the old rules and hadn't realised their gains yet.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ruled out any further changes to superannuation this term.
Mr Albanese said it was hard to argue super accounts with balances of $3 million or more were about "actual retirement incomes".
"Most Australians would be quite surprised that there are 17 Australians who have over $100 million in their superannuation accounts, and one has over $400 million," he told ABC radio.
"Most Australians will would agree that's not what superannuation is for."
He also ruled out scrapping capital gains tax exemptions on the family home to raise more revenue.
Mr Taylor called on the government to also categorically rule out any changes to negative gearing after the treasurer said it "isn't something the government is considering".
Dr Chalmers says the government had struck the right balance with the $3 million threshold instead of lowering it to boost revenue.
He also defended banking the savings instead of putting them back into the system by adding super to paid parental leave.
While it was the government's intention to add super to the leave, it wasn't something that was affordable at the moment, he said.
"This change is about budget repair."
Mr Taylor is being accused of being obstructionist, with comments he made in 2016 about those with large super balances paying their fair share in tax resurfacing.
"It's totally inappropriate someone who has contributed millions and millions of dollars continues to get those 15 per cent tax concessions," he said at the time.
© AAP 2023
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Australians are being assured the government won't further lower a new superannuation tax cap amid accusations of a broken election promise.
The concessional tax rate applied to future earnings for balances above $3 million will be lifted from 15 per cent to 30 per cent from 2025/26.
It will impact about 80,000 Australians and is expected to raise $2 billion in the first full year and $3.2 billion over five years, which will go back into the budget rather than be spent.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the changes are modest but meaningful.
"Overwhelmingly, this is about one thing, responsible economic management," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
"The changes are about making superannuation more sustainable by making the tax breaks more affordable."
Dr Chalmers added the government had struck the right balance with the $3 million threshold instead of lowering it to boost revenue.
He said the superannuation system was world class but had two major imperfections.
"The cost of the tax breaks for people who don't need them, and the gender gap in balances," he said.
The treasurer said the government needed to make difficult decisions in not putting the money towards paying super on paid parental leave.
"When we can afford to pay superannuation guarantee on paid parental leave we would like to, but this change is about budget repair."
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said it was clearly a broken election promise from Labor after promising not to make superannuation changes this term.
"Australians don't want to see a government that can't manage its own spending and has to come after Australians with higher taxes," he said.
But the prime minister is maintaining the government has stuck to its commitment by ensuring the policy is taken to an election before being implemented.
Anthony Albanese said it was hard to argue super accounts with balances of $3 million or more were about "actual retirement incomes".
"There are 17 Australians who have over $100 million in their superannuation accounts and one has over $400 million," he told ABC radio.
"Now most Australians will would agree that's not what superannuation is for, that's not about providing for people's retirement incomes.
"That's why this change is important."
Greens leader Adam Bandt, whose party's Senate support will be needed to pass the changes, said he would discuss the plan with Labor, but the "modest proposal" ignored other more responsible budget policies.
"Let's look at reining in the stage three tax cuts," he said.
Richard Denniss, from the Australia Institute, said superannuation tax breaks were unsustainable and inequitable.
Tony Negline, from Chartered Accountants ANZ, said the change would have a big impact on a small number of people who had played by the rules.
Mr Albanese ruled out changes to capital gains tax exemptions.
"We are not going to impact the family home, full stop, exclamation mark," he said.
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Ghislaine Maxwell is expected to ask a appeals court in the United States to throw out her conviction for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, saying a slew of errors marred the case as prosecutors made her a scapegoat because the financier was dead.
"The government prosecuted Ms. Maxwell as a proxy for Jeffrey Epstein" to satisfy "public outrage" over the case, and worked with his accusers "to develop new allegations out of faded, distorted, and motivated memories," Maxwell lawyer Arthur Aidala said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
A spokesman for US Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan declined to comment.
Maxwell, 61, is expected to present her legal arguments in a filing with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
She is serving a 20-year prison sentence after a Manhattan jury convicted her in December 2021 on five charges for recruiting and grooming four girls for abuse by Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
The daughter of deceased British media mogul Robert Maxwell is imprisoned in Tallahassee, Florida, and could be freed in July 2037 with credit for good behaviour and two years she previously spent in jail.
Maxwell's lawyers had tried to discredit her accusers and claimed that prosecutors turned the socialite's case into a legal reckoning that Epstein, a registered sex offender, never had.
Epstein was found dead aged 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, one month after being charged with sex trafficking.
Hundreds of women claimed to be victims of Epstein's abuse, and famous people, most notably Prince Andrew, who were friendly with him have had their reputations tarred or destroyed.
Many arguments in Maxwell's appeal are expected to mirror those she made unsuccessfully before, during and after the trial.
She has claimed that Epstein's 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida, arising from alleged abuse at his Palm Beach mansion, also immunised her.
Epstein, in exchange for immunity, pleaded guilty the next year to a Florida state prostitution charge and served 13 months in jail.
That arrangement is now widely considered too lenient.
Maxwell is expected to claim that prosecutors charged her long after a five-year statute of limitations expired.
She is also expected to challenge the trial judge's refusal to toss her conviction after a juror admitted having failed to disclose before trial that he had been sexually abused as a child.
Maxwell has claimed that the juror, identified as Scotty David or Juror 50, used his experience to convince other jurors she was guilty.
Lawyers for Maxwell have also said she was unable to prepare meaningfully for trial at her Brooklyn jail because of raw sewage, sleep and water deprivation, as well as surveillance resembling Hannibal Lecter's in the movie The Silence of the Lambs.
At Maxwell's trial, the four accusers said Maxwell and Epstein at first made them feel welcome in their orbit before subjecting them into giving Epstein sexualised massages.
Prosecutors are expected to respond to Maxwell's filing before the appeals court hears oral arguments.
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The Gold Coast are set to unleash their version of Josh Addo-Carr when dazzling winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira makes his NRL debut against Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval.
The 21-year-old has been in supreme form after scoring four tries in the 40-16 trial win over the Dolphins, a week after notching two tries in a 24-all draw with Brisbane.
Khan-Pereira was the leading try scorer in the Queensland Cup last year with 25 for the Burleigh Bears and subsequently named the competition's winger of the year.
Canterbury flyer Addo-Carr, known as 'The Foxx', was clocked at 38.7 km/hr against the Titans last season, the fastest official speed recorded by the NRL.
In last year's pre-season Khan-Pereira clocked 36.5 km/hr at training while hardly raising a sweat and not being chased.
Luke Burt, who played 264 NRL games for Parramatta, previously coached Khan-Pereira at Burleigh where he was an assistant coach before moving up to the top job this season.
He said the only speedster he had seen who would match Khan-Pereira was Addo-Carr.
"I am a bit biased because I have worked with 'Lof' but I would put my money on 'Lof'. It would be mighty close in a race," Burt told AAP ahead of Sunday afternoon's clash.
"I haven't seen many people move on the field like him. He is lightning.
"Even when he got in the clear last year I don't think he showed us his true speed. He just did enough to get there.
"Give him a 50-50 situation to break the line or score a try in the corner and nine times out of 10 he will get there."
Burt said Khan-Pereira, in the Titans system since his teens, was unique because he could actually move around players and keep his speed.
"There are a few tries he scored at Burleigh for us last year where he beat the fullback and held that speed," Burt said.
"A lot of sprinters are renowned for being straight line fast but he can change direction and keep that speed.
"I have heard strength and conditioners say all the time that speed is power and he has got plenty of it."
Asides from being a speedster Burt said Khan-Pereira was "a great human being" who kept a positive vibe around the club.
When the Titans were at their best previously they had speedy wingers David Mead and Kevin Gordon on the wings.
Khan-Pereira is a blast from the past and he plays outside creative five-eighth Kieran Foran and rampaging back-rower Beau Fermor, who both set him up for tries against the Dolphins.
"In the past it has been a good formula for the Titans and I think with the style of football (Titans coach) Justin Holbrook likes to play those finishers on the edges are so important," Burt said.
"If you give 'Lof' half an opportunity he is going to finish most of them."
© AAP 2023
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