Super tax showdown, student debt relief and child safety reforms headline Parliament return

The Coalition has launched its first political attack of the new parliamentary term, using an inaugural Question Time to slam the Government over its controversial plans for a tax hike on superannuation balances over $3 million.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, the Liberal Party’s first female leader in its 80-year history, launched the initial salvo in her second question to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, although she failed to land the blow by missing a specific reference to superannuation.

It allowed Mr Albanese to take aim at an open goal, firing back that the Opposition went to the election saying that they would actually “introduce legislation to increase income taxes for every single Australian taxpayer”, referring to the Coalition’s vow to repeal tax cuts Labor announced in its March Budget.

The Prime Minister, back in his element and playing to a boisterous and expanded gallery of Labor MPs, delivered sharp jibes that prompted a rebuke from Speaker Milton Dick to refrain from referring to the Coalition as the “Noalition.”

But the Coalition quickly picked up the momentum in pressing the Government for detailed answers on its proposed superannuation tax laws, batting hardball questions to Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino on the nuances of the bill and how many would be impacted.

The Government is planning to raise the tax rate from 15 to 30 per cent on earnings of those whose super balances are above $3 million, arguing it will make the tax system fairer and only impact about 80,000 people, most of them above retirement age.

But this assessment was recently disputed by the Financial Services Council, which calculated that half a million currently in the workforce would be affected when they retired if the $3m threshold was not indexed to inflation.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers sidestepped questions from Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O’Brien and shadow industrial relations minister Tim Wilson, refusing to rule out ever taxing unrealised capital gains on anything beyond superannuation, including family homes and trusts.

Pressed on whether the “80,000” projection remained accurate, he reverted to earlier calculations.

“When we announced the policy, the expectation was that there would be about 0.5 per cent of people in the superannuation system impacted by what is a very modest change,” he said.

“We’re about strengthening superannuation, and those opposite are about weakening superannuation.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud raised fears within the farming community about the legislation, asking Mr Mulino how the changes would impact a farmer who held their property in a self-managed super fund and had a bad season.

Mr Mulino responded that the reform would ensure “dignity and certainty in retirement”.

The Coalition has already signalled it will oppose the legislation, dubbed “super big and super bad” by Mr O’Brien.

On Wednesday, Mr O’Brien said the draft laws “should send a chill down the spine of every Australian family.”

But despite the baying across the aisles during much of Question Time, the House achieved a rare bipartisan moment over the Government’s attempts to tighten early childhood safety regulations to strip funding from childcare centres that fail to meet minimum standards.

The Government introduced its childcare plans as one of its two first bills of the new term – the other being its election pledge to slash student debt by 20 per cent.

While student debt relief was a pledge Labor took to the Federal election campaign, the introduction of tougher child protection laws was spurred by national shock over the arrest and charging of alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown.

Mr Brown, who was able to work across 23 childcare centres, has been charged with dozens of offences including alleged sexual assault, producing child abuse material and contaminating food with his bodily fluids.

Since his arrest, more than 2000 families have been urged to test their children for sexually transmitted infection, and faith has crumbling in the childcare vetting system.

Taking to the dispatch box, Mr Clare thanked the Opposition Leader for her swift support for the Government’s reforms after a scandal that had “shocked, sickened and appalled” Australians.

“People have been arrested and convicted for offences like those alleged before, and governments, Labor and Liberal, state and federal, have taken action but not enough and not fast enough,” he said.

“We have to do everything that we can to ensure the safety of our children when they walk or when they’re carried through childcare.”

Ms Ley said that like members across the aisle she felt “physically sick” over the issue, confirming the Coalition stood ready to get the legislation right.

“We want to examine it closely . . . amendments do need to be made, but ultimately, I want those listening and viewing today to be confident that this is an issue without politics,” she said.

Earlier while introducing the draft legislation to the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning, Mr Clare stressed the purpose of the bill was “not to shut childcare centres down” but to “raise standards up”.

Under the bill, care providers could have their Childcare Subsidy (CCS) funding blocked over a single breach on quality standards, Mr Clare confirmed to the ABC.

“This will give us the power to issue a show cause notice to a centre and say we will shut it within 28 days unless they meet that minimum standard,” he said.

He told Parliament that the move was “not about leaving parents stranded without care for their children because of fixable or minor shortcomings at their service. But this legislation is also not an idle threat to services.”

The Coalition have signalled broad support for improving safety at childcare centres but has raised concerns about whether it goes far enough, while the Greens have called for the Government to bolster its plan by creating a national watchdog.

Jess Walsh, the Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, told ABC Radio National Breakfast the legislation would give the Government a “tough new lever to make sure that children are kept safe in our early learning settings,” by taking funding from providers who put child safety ahead of profits.

She said it was aimed at “serious repeat offenders” who “persistently and consistently fail” to meet the National Quality Standard.

“We can start by issuing a show-cause notice as to why that provider, that service, should maintain their Commonwealth funding through the Child Care Subsidy. And we can make that show-cause notice public,” she said.

We think that is a really strong step that will drive change. At that point, we think that those providers who are doing the wrong thing regularly will make the investments that they need to keep our children safe.”

Senator Walsh said families would be notified about repeat offenders, adding that the Federal Government would be working together with state authorities on a broader child safety package.

This would include the first-ever nationwide register of early childhood educators and mandatory safety training.

“We also want to provide much more transparent information to parents, so they know what the quality is and whether there are any issues in the services that they’re thinking about or currently sending their children to,” she said.