Off the table
After a week where almost everything was put on the table, the strangest thing about the days ahead as Parliament sits is how much is not up for debate.
When a senior minister appears on the ABC’s Insiders on the Sunday ahead of a sitting week, the questions usually centre on the government’s plans for the coming fortnight. For Jim Chalmers over the weekend, though, it was much more about what is not on the table right now.
Overtime pay, medicine price cuts, and a 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers are expected to follow HECS relief as Labor’s first achievements in the 48th Parliament.
But what’s not on the list this fortnight? Plans to more heavily tax the gains – realised and unrealised – on superannuation balances in excess of $3 million, also known as division 296.
Chalmers confirmed on Insiders that, despite announcing this plan two years ago, the government is “not proposing to introduce it or reintroduce it this week” with a “bunch of other priorities” queued up.
