MP says Coalition will 'fight to the death' over $3m super tax

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says the Coalition will "fight to the death" to ensure the taxing of unrealised capital gains is abandoned.

Appearing on the Today show this morning, Canavan and Greens leader Larissa Waters debated the viability of the superannuation tax, which will potentially see a 15% increase in taxes applied to the proportion of super savings exceeding the $3 million threshold.

Canavan argued that the taxing of unrealised gains is incredibly unfair, and people should only pay the tax on substantiated income, reiterating that there is "no way in hell" he will support the tax and will "fight to the death" to oppose it.

"I hope the Greens won't give them the green light on this to put in such an unfair tax," he said.

Waters supports the policy and argued that only 0.5% - equivalent to approximately 130,000 people - will be affected.

"I think it's important to remember that nobody watching your show would be impacted by this tax," she said.

At one point, Canavan asked about the farmers that could be affected by the tax, holding assets within self-managed super funds. Attempting to brush off the question, Waters responded that she was sure that "they've [farmers] got better things to do than be sitting around watching telly."

"I'm also very sure that very few of them have superannuation balances that are over $3 million. This is not ordinary folks we are talking about," she said.

"Pretty hard to buy a farm for less than [$3 million] these days," Canavan argued before the segment was ended.

It comes as Wilson Asset Management (WAM) chair Geoff Wilson is gaining signatures for a petition against Div 296, slamming it as a "stupid tax".

WAM recently invited the industry to sign its petition, which has reached over 10,000 signatures since Friday evening.

"This is a sign that our advocacy which begun before the election when no one else was talking about the issue, is starting to have an impact. More business leaders and venture capitalists are coming out and speaking out against the issue each day," WAM said.

"A lack of indexation on the $3 million means that 8.1 million Australians, or half of all current superannuants, will be captured by 2053 due to the impact from 'bracket creep'."

While there is more work to be done, WAM says the petition is an important contributor against the "illogical and unfair" policy.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers remains fully committed to the super tax, labelling it as "concessional" while bolstering things like Medicare, cost-of-living relief and easing housing problems.

Last month, Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg condemned the bill, claiming that it won't impact politicians with specific defined benefit schemes that pre-date 2004; Chalmers subsequently confirmed that all politicians will be subject to the tax.

Other industry parties, including the SMSF Association have previously slammed the taxing of unrealised gains and the lack of indexation of the threshold.

However, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) supports the bill, claiming it will strengthen fairness in the super sector.