Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ruled out any future changes to capital gains tax concessions on the family home and vowed there would be no more changes to superannuation this term of government, after unveiling plans to increase tax on super earnings over $3 million earlier this week.

“We are not going to impact the family home, full stop exclamation mark. Because it’s a bad idea,” Albanese said on ABC’s RN Breakfast on Wednesday morning.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said any changes to capital gains tax on the family home was a bad idea.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“It’s a bad idea because people who save for their home, and that they live in with their family … it is something that we have no intention [of changing]. We will not be making any changes there.”

On Tuesday, Albanese announced the government will double the tax on superannuation earnings over $3 million from July 1, 2025, affecting about 80,000 people.

The plan gained early support from key senators and drew criticism from the Coalition over broken election promises after Albanese said ahead of the May election that Labor had no intention of changing superannuation.

On Wednesday morning, Albanese said the increased tax on super earnings on balances over $3 million was the only change to retirement income tax that the government was proposing, and said it was not a broken promise.

“This is a modest change. That is about improving the sustainability of the system. It’s important as well to recognise it’s not retrospective, but it applies to future earnings,” he said.

When asked if there would be more changes to superannuation, Albanese said: “This is the only change we are proposing”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government had not considered changes to superannuation tax before the election last year, or even before the October budget.

Speaking on Nine’s Today show on Wednesday morning, the treasurer acknowledged the decision would come with a political cost.

“We understand that when you make an announcement like we did yesterday, sometimes it comes with a political cost, but our overwhelming responsibility to the Australian people is to try and do the right thing. This is the right thing,” he said.

“I think the Australian people expect many as treasurer, and the government more broadly, to try and make these difficult decisions and try to get them right and on the merits of the decision, I don’t think any objective observer could say that this wasn’t the right outcome.”

After the Tuesday announcement, Albanese refused to rule out taking other tax reforms to the election. Data released by Treasury showed tax breaks on super would be worth $50 billion this financial year, while the government will also miss out on another $50 billion due to the way Australia taxes capital gains.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the super change was a “supersized broken election promise” from the government.

“As part of putting out the tax expenditure statement where we know there’s over $150 billion of tax opportunities for this Labor government, a Labor government that is chasing your money because it doesn’t have enough of its own rather than managing its finances,” he told reporters on Wednesday morning.

“We know that they want to raise taxes on Australians. We know when the Labor Party runs out of its money, it comes after yours. And we know that this is a very slippery slope that we now see the Labor Party on.”

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