“It speaks volumes that the treasurer is shooting the messengers by attacking media outlets for their coverage because he can’t explain why he’s overturning fundamental tax principles by taxing unrealised gains,” finance spokesman James Paterson said.

The Greens want the threshold for the tax to kick in at $2 million rather than $3 million and are hoping for that threshold to be indexed. But the party has suggested it would help Labor enact the policy;the two parties have the numbers in the Senate to pass laws together.

“[We] want to ensure that very wealthy Australians pay their fair share of tax,so that governments can do more to support people who need it,” Greens senator Nick McKim said.

The most controversial element of the policy is that unrealised capital gains on assets held in super,such as property or farms,will be valued and taxed each year. Thepractice has raised questions about the principle of asking a superannuant to settle a tax bill for assets from which they have not yet banked an actual gain.

Chalmers said tax concessions for super account holders remained generous,and claimed Coalition MPs were lying when they said senior politicians,such as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,would not be captured by the tax.

Last month,opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg claimed on Instagram that Albanese had “exempted himself” from the tax,though he has moderated his language since.

Chalmers said long-serving MPs such as Albanese,who have an older type of superannuation called a “defined benefit scheme”,would be taxed in an equivalent way to other Australians under the planned change.

While most people will pay the extra tax annually,Chalmers said people on defined benefit schemes were legally barred from paying the tax from their fund’s earnings. But they would pay the tax upon their retirement and becharged interest on the deferred tax amount.

The super tax is one of Labor’s only prospective revenue-raising measures at a time when budget deficits are projected for the rest of the decade. Chalmers said the level of opposition to the proposal was not a good sign for future tax reform.

“A lot of the same people say we need to dramatically increase defence spending,we need to dramatically cut the company[tax] rate,we need to abandon the changes to make superannuation tax concessions fairer,and we need to deliver bigger surpluses.”

Wednesday’s national accounts revealed a further fall in the legal consumption of cigarettes and tobacco by Australian households. In the first three months of the year,consumption dropped by 6.4 per cent to be 15.7 per cent lower over the past year.

But sales of illegal cigarettes continue to soar,while it is central to a growing organised crime war in Victoria and increasingly in Queensland.

NSW Premier Chris Minns on Wednesday said there had to be a national conversation about the impact of ever-increasing federal excise on tobacco,arguing illegal cigarette stores were now displacing legitimate businesses in suburban high streets.

“What’s happening with these elite illegal tobacco stores is they’re pushing out hot bread shops,small businesses,retail stores,they’re pushing out restaurants because it’s so lucrative they can just take the rent at a higher price,” he told Sydney’s KIIS radio.

Despite higher excise on tobacco,excise collections on cigarettes have been written down by $43 billion between 2020 and 2029,creating a hole in the federal budget.

Pressed on the issue,Chalmers said he would not cut tobacco excise,arguing the government was focused on policing cigarette sales and preventing the importation of illegal product.
“We do acknowledge that this is a real challenge. More people are giving up the darts,but more people are also doing the wrong thing,” he said.

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