Labor claims mandate for super tax half of voters didn’t know existed
It was the oldest of the policies taken to the federal election but had a low level of awareness among voters.
Financial Review
Jun 9, 2025
When voters went to the polls on or before May 3, about half, or 49 per cent, were aware of the policy to double to 30 per cent the earnings tax on superannuation balances above $3 million.
Support for the policy was lower at 38 per cent, while opposition was at 25 per cent. The other 37 per cent had no view either way.
The numbers are contained in a survey conducted days after the election by JWS Research, which tested the awareness and popularity levels of various policy commitments leading up to polling day.
A photograph of Anthony Albanese speaking to media about Labor’s super tax.
Anthony Albanese says the superannuation tax changes are about fairness.
The super tax hike was the oldest of the policies taken to the election, but it flew below the radar, rating 13th in terms of awareness out of the 16 policies tested.
Top of the tree were the populist measures the government was actively and understandably promoting, starting with the $16 billion cut to student debt, which had an 81 per cent awareness rate.
Symbolically, the legislation for this will be the first to pass parliament when it sits on July 22. Labor backbencher Jerome Laxale told Sky News on Monday it was a significant winner during the campaign, working with both young people and their parents.
Liberal Aaron Violi did not disagree, but noted sardonically that it was hard to be unpopular when giving people money. Had inflation not stayed so high for so long, thus inflating student debt, there would have been lesser need for the waiver, he said.
“They don’t govern particularly well, but they do politics particularly well,” he said of Labor.
In terms of awareness, the debt waiver was followed by the $8.5 billion Medicare boost to improve bulk billing rates (78 per cent), cheaper prescription medicines (67 per cent), $10 billion in loans and grants to build houses for first home buyers (67 per cent), fee-free TAFE (65 per cent) and the energy bill rebate extension (64 per cent).
The three Labor policies with a lower awareness level than the super tax were the New Vehicle Emissions Standards, a household battery subsidy, and a ban on non-compete clauses.
The super tax was announced on February 28, 2023 and broke the promise Anthony Albanese gave before the election about leaving super alone.
The government partly acknowledged the broken promise by saying it would legislate the tax hike before the 2025 election, but it would not come into effect until July 1, 2025, meaning people could still vote to stop it happening.
Given the tax proposal has been around for so long and the government made it clear it would stay on the books after the Senate refused repeatedly to pass it before the last election, Labor lays claim to having a mandate to keep pursuing the change.
The Liberal Party has openly admitted its failure to properly prosecute a case against the tax was one of many failures that contributed to its historically bad loss, all while it allowed itself to be duffed up by a baseless scare campaign abut Medicare.
It has next to no prospect of stopping the tax because the Senate numbers have changed, meaning Labor and the Greens – the latter having always supported the super tax hike – have the requisite numbers between them to pass the legislation.
On Monday, Greens treasury spokesman Nick McKim reaffirmed his party’s in-principle support.
He said the Greens’ priority was to restore superannuation to its “original intent”, which had “moved away from being completely about providing for a dignified retirement for working Australians and has become, through a series of changes, mostly under the Liberal Party, fair to say, more of a vehicle for wealth accumulation”.
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