Last night’s Budget confirmed several humiliating backflips from a Treasurer who has campaigned for months against low income superannuation and targeting tax concessions in super.

The Government has now followed Labor’s strong lead on the high income threshold and backed away from their plans to abolish the Low Income Superannuation Contribution, and we obviously support those changes.

This is a big win for Labor who has fought hard for these policies, despite longstanding scare campaigns and opposition from the Abbott-Turnbull Government.

Scott Morrison has clearly changed his tune in the last year since he made this promise on Sky News in June 2015:

“The government has made it crystal clear that we have no interest in increasing taxes on superannuation either now or in the future.”

He’s also changed his position on retrospective superannuation changes which he last confirmed just a few months ago to Neil Mitchell on 3AW in February:

“MITCHELL: Would you guarantee no retrospectivity?

TREASURER: Well of course,”

After telling him in November 2015:

“Well, what we want to make sure of with superannuation is that we need to respect the fact that people have been saving under particular rules over a long period of time that there is nothing that punishes or penalises them retrospectively on any of these things. I mean that is one of those iron clad rules about when you look at these systems.”

There are some substantial changes to superannuation that were announced for the first time in the Budget last night, and we will consult on those before we come to a final view.

Labor has been saying for well over a year now that we need to address the poorly-targeted superannuation tax concessions at the top end, and we will consider these new announcements in that light.

Unlike the Liberals, Labor’s record on low income super and targeting unfair concessions is well-established and longstanding.