Australian news and politics: Anthony Albanese rejects ‘death tax’ claims in Budget trusts overhaul

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The mysterious shareholding of Northern Minerals has again raised the ire of Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who has issued yet more disposal orders for the rare earths miner.

Monday’s decision is just the latest development in the long-running saga targeting little-known investors thought to be stalking Northern Minerals that has hampered efforts to advance its strategic Browns Range project in the East Kimberley.

The orders, issued through the Foreign Investment Review Board, have directed six investors — Hong Kong Ying Tak Ltd, Real International Resources Ltd, Qogir Trading & Service Co Ltd, Chuanyou Cong, Vastness Investment Group Ltd and Zhongxiong Lin — to sell their holdings within 14 days.

Together, the six hold an interest of almost 1.7 billion shares — or about 17.6 per cent of the miner.

“This decision was entirely consistent with advice from Treasury and the Foreign Investment Review Board, and is about protecting our national interest and ensuring compliance with our foreign investment framework,” a spokesman for Dr Chalmers said.

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Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has refused to agree that the tax on testamentary discretionary trusts is a “death tax,” but has accepted the Budget move will hit families who try to shift their “money around”.

Appearing on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program, the Social Services Minister also suggested it was reasonable for trusts to be taxed if families were attempting to move their money around for tax minimisation purposes.

Following Anthony Albanese’s admission that future testamentary discretionary trusts would be hit by a minimum 30 per cent tax on distributions, just hours after he claimed all testamentary trusts would be exempt, Ms Plibersek rejected suggestions the policy amounted to a “death tax”.

“Well, testamentary trusts are trusts that you set up to distribute money to your kids after you’ve died,” Ms Plibersek replied.

“You can either distribute that money in set shares to your children, or you can have someone else deciding that this kid gets more this year, this kid gets less this year.

“What we are saying is if the share is fixed, no change, that’s fine.

“If you are able to shift the money around, you might be doing that to minimise tax, so that is going to have the minimum 30 per cent tax.”

Asked directly if it was a death tax, Ms Plibersek said: “No.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has accused critics of his Budget of taking part in an “unhinged scare campaign” driven by their own “partisan or commercial interest”.

The Labor frontbencher faced security while in Brisbane as the Albanese Government travels around Australia trying to sell their Budget.

It comes as a new opinion poll has ranked Labor’s Budget the worst since 1993, with a majority of voters declaring the Federal Government’s latest financial blueprint will leave them worse off.

“It would surprise me more if we got some sort of bump in the polls after some of the difficult decisions we took in the Budget,” Dr Chalmers said in Brisbane.

“The Budget was full of hard decisions, not handouts.

“I think in the middle of an oil shock which is putting pressure on people, in the middle of an unhinged scare campaign from people with a partisan or commercial interest in this, and in the context of a budget which is full of hard decisions and not handouts, I don’t think it’s especially surprising to see the sorts of polls we’ve seen in recent days.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister have taken the Government’s Budget sell to Queensland, unveiling a deal to build 50,000 new homes, of which 20,000 will be for first home buyers.

“It’s a Budget for workers, a budget for first home buyers, and a Budget for future generations who would otherwise be locked out of the housing market,” Dr Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane.

“Tens of thousands of new homes for Queenslanders, including tens of thousands of homes for first home buyers. This is how you make a tangible difference to the housing market in this country, taking difficult decisions, building more homes, making more of those homes available to first home buyers.”

Senior Labor MP Tanya Plibersek has attempted to brush off the fallout from the Federal Budget, saying people “take time” to understand changes and make up their mind.

“There’s a lot of people who are saying they are in favour of the changes we are making, and there is a big group in the middle that don’t yet understand what has been decided, who we’ve got to talk to and explain,” Ms Plibersek told Sunrise.

“The most important thing to start with is if you are already negatively gearing, you can keep doing it, no change. If you want to negatively gear in the future, what you will do is buy a new property.”

Ms Plibersek said she didn’t want people her age being subsidised to get their fifth or 10th home.

“Pushed on why Australians didn’t yet see Labor’s vision, Ms Plibersek said: “I think that’s pretty normal.”

“People take a little while to listen to everything they are hearing... and they will make their mind up over time.

“Most people that stop me in the street to talk about housing, people my age and older, are worried that their kids and grandkids will never be able to afford a home of their own.”

A new poll has ranked Labor’s Budget the worst since 1993 with a majority of voters declaring the Federal Government’s latest financial blueprint will leave them worse off.

At the same time, the Newspoll found primary support for Labor unchanged, as the Coalition slipped further behind and One Nation continued to surge.

Among the 1252 voters quizzed, 52 per cent believed they would be worse off over the next 12 months as a result of the Government’s tax changes and other measures and only 11 per cent thought their circumstances would improve.

The poll also found 47 per cent of voters felt the budget was driving a wedge between younger and older generations while 26 per cent believed it was rebalancing the playing field and making things fairer.

Published in The Australian, the poll ranked Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s efforts below the Abbott government’s controversial austerity budget in 2014 and the worst since the Keating government’s 1993 budget when Labor abandoned the infamous “L-A-W” tax cuts.

Fallout from Labor’s “broken promises Budget” has continued, with a new poll now putting Angus Taylor as preferred Prime Minister.

The Resolve poll showed Angus Taylor had 33 per cent support, compared to Anthony Albanese’s 30 per cent.

Responding to the poll, Labor’s Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek, said: “It’s one poll”.

“We will keep doing our job of reminding people of why we have made this decision,” referring to the controversial changes to housing policy, CGT and negative gearing,” she told Sunrise.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said Australians were reacting to a Labor “that lied before the election”.

“They lied,” he said again and again.