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10 July 2025 by Miranda Brownlee

L1 Capital merger to ‘inject new life into platinum’: Morningstar

The deal between Platinum Asset Management and L1 Capital will help arrest the organic business decline of Platinum and unlock value, according to ...
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SEC clarity sets stage for Australia’s next crypto ETF push

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Defence and precious metals top ETF charts in first half of 2025

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‘This is a new RBA’: Economists caught off guard by surprise decision

Economists have been left scrambling to recalibrate after the Reserve Bank wrong-footed markets on Tuesday, holding the ...

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Diversified strategies power double-digit super returns over volatile year

Brighter Super and Mercer Super have reported double-digit returns, crediting diversified strategies and long-term focus ...

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For richer or poorer

  •  
By Christine St Anne
  •  
4 minute read

Rumour and speculation are rife about the contents of next month's federal budget.

Given the deepening market crisis, no-one expects any superannuation benefits to be announced in this year's federal budget. However, there is growing speculation super concessions are in for an overhaul as the government tries to grapple with a growing deficit.

Few in the industry ever questioned the sustainability of the Howard government's simple super initiatives. Announced in 2006, the measures were widely welcomed. The generous tax concessions effectively pushed superannuation as one of the most important (and tax-effective) assets for Australians.

These super tax concessions, however, are one of the fast-growing areas of total government spending, according to recent research from the Australia Institute.

The think tank found the super tax concessions would cost the budget $24.6 billion in 2008/09, rivalling the $26.7 billion annual cost of the age pension and constituting about a fifth of income tax revenue ($130 billion a year).

 
 

Industry groups are also questioning the super tax concessions.

CPA Australia and the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia found the policy changes overwhelmingly benefited higher income households. 

In its submission to the Henry tax review, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) noted it was unclear whether the measures that made super tax free for those over 60 were equitable or fiscally sustainable in the long run.

In fact, at this year's Conference of Major Superannuation Funds, AIST chief Fiona Reynolds said the budget could abolish some of the tax concessions.

As former prime minister Paul Keating said in an Investor Weekly interview, Australia's compulsory system was created so everyone, including "the bloke running after the garbage truck", had access to super.

The crisis could also provide the government with the opportunity to weed out the current inequity in the system and perhaps direct any savings to middle and lower-income earners. Let's hope these measures will be sustainable.