Latest news with #MattCanavan
Sky News AU
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Albanese's ‘reluctance' to support the US is ‘dangerous' for Australia
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan claims Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a 'reluctant supporter' of the US. 'He [Anthony Albanese] seems to be a reluctant supporter of the United States, and I think that's a very dangerous thing for our country,' Mr Canavan told Sky News host Paul Murray. 'We've seen the Prime Minister spend more time on the China relationship, really in his first term, than he did on the American relationship.'
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Trump's potential involvement in Iran-Israel conflict is ‘concerning'
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan discusses the 'concerning' possibility of US President Donald Trump becoming involved in the Iran-Israel conflict. 'I'm concerned here right now, I mean, have we learnt the lessons of the last 20 years?' Mr Canavan told Sky News host Sharri Markson. 'I'm very worried about what's happening here … I'm not so sure what the objective here is. 'I hope the President is considering all of these things very deeply because it has huge implications for the rest of the world.'
Sky News AU
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Australians ‘deserve a choice' on net zero agenda: Matt Canavan
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan praises the New South Wales Nationals after they voted to dump the 2050 net zero target. 'Don't the Australian people deserve a choice on this?' Mr Canavan told Sky News host Paul Murray. 'This is a radical plan to completely change how we do everything, not just electricity. 'Hopefully at the next election, we can have a contest on this craziness.'
Sky News AU
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Albanese's response to US request to increase defence spending was ‘petulant'
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan discusses the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit. 'The United States, I think, does need some help from its friends right now, it's a divided country, it's got massive debt,' Mr Canavan told Sky News host Paul Murray. 'As a good friend and ally, we should be trying to help them as much as we can. 'I thought Anthony Albanese's juvenile and petulant response a couple of weeks ago to the request to lift our defence spending was not worthy of an Australian Prime Minister.'
The Guardian
12-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Taxing actual rather than unrealised super gains would mean ‘significant' costs for millions of Australians, Treasury says
Treasury says taxing actual instead of unrealised gains would have meant millions of super fund members were hit with 'significant' compliance costs as part of a policy aimed at trimming concessions for just 80,000 of the country's wealthiest savers. Labor's proposal will put an extra 15% tax on earnings generated from super balances over $3m in an effort to make the super system more equitable and sustainable. The Coalition and interest groups have attacked the policy's method of taxing changes in the value of super assets (unrealised gains), rather than on cash profit (realised gains), saying it transgresses tax norms. Nationals senator Matt Canavan vowed earlier this month to 'fight to the death' against the proposed change, arguing that taxing unrealised gains was 'incredibly unfair'. In its impact analysis document released in 2023, Treasury concluded that taxing cash profits 'would be the most accurate method for determining taxable earnings'. However, the trade-off would be imposing an unacceptably high compliance and regulatory burden on the large super funds which manage the super accounts of millions of Australians with smaller benefits, and who would not be affected by the tax change. Super funds currently calculate and report taxable income at the fund level and not at the member level, Treasury noted. As such, taxing cash earnings would 'involve a substantial burden on the superannuation industry to implement as it would involve developing and maintaining a complex new accounting and reporting regime to calculate taxable income at a member level,' the policy document says. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'These significant compliance costs would be borne across all funds and all members, including the 99.5 per cent of account holders who are not impacted by this policy, despite this proposal impacting only approximately 30,000 high balance members with accounts in APRA [Australian Prudential Regulation Authority]-regulated funds.' David Knox, one of the country's leading actuaries and a former senior partner at Mercer, said it was more appropriate to think of the proposed additional levy as a tax on wealth, rather than income. Knox said the approach of taxing unrealised gains was not as radical as some have suggested, saying it was similar to the way council rates (a cash levy) increased with the market value of the land. He also pointed to the fact that pension payments were reduced when a pensioner's home value went up. In both cases, an individual paid in cash – either through higher rates or lower pension payments – for what is a change in notional wealth. The super industry is split into two 'subsystems': Apra-regulated funds – including the big industry and for-profit funds such as AustralianSuper and AMP, respectively – and self-managed super funds. The Apra-regulated funds account for about 94%, or 16m of the 17m Australians with super accounts – but only 76% of the more than $4tn in the super system. There are about 1.1 million people in SMSFs, but this 6% share accounts for 24% of total assets. The Self-Managed Super Fund Association has been among the loudest opponents of the bill. It has highlighted the risk that SMSFs with big holdings in illiquid assets could be forced to sell in order to raise the cash to pay for the notional change in the value of their balances. Treasury's policy document noted that 'some stakeholders have noted that as a result of the changes, there may be a greater focus on investing in income generating assets, such as shares and bonds, as opposed to property and other more illiquid assets'. 'This could represent a positive shift as it would better align with the intention of superannuation to provide income in retirement.' The Treasury documents show that this risk applies to a sliver of those likely to be caught up in the new tax. Fewer than 5% of the estimated 77,400 Australians who will be affected by the changes – or fewer than 4,000 people – have more than 80% of their retirement savings in non-residential retail property, such as farms. Bob Breunig, the director of the ANU's Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, had previously said: 'Running businesses and property portfolios inside super, they shouldn't be doing that, that's not what it's for.'
