“Three million is a lot of money to have in a super fund. I’m sure I’ll put myself out there and people will say ‘he should never have said that’,but I think three million is a lot of money and a four per cent return on that... I’m pretty sure after tax somebody could live on $120,000. It’s not a bad sum of money,” McEwan said.
“I think it’s a move that probably needed to be made.”
Although McEwan said the government should consider indexing the $3 million threshold to account for inflation,the NAB boss said the change was reasonable as the government seeks to repay debt. He said it would not affect 99.5 per cent of Australians.
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“It affected a small group of people who have a huge amount of money in those funds. I’m sure they’ll find other things to do with it. That’s just the reality of where we are. We’re all going to have to play our part to get this economy back into shape,get the debt down of the country,that’s what we’re going to have to pay,” he said.
After Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year said Labor had no intention of making changes to super,Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has accused him of breaking a promise,andvowed to repeal the tax change if the Coalition wins the next election.
With markets tipping another interest rate rise next week,McEwan also said on Friday that NAB expected more borrowers would struggle with their repayments over the next six to 12 months. So far,however,he said a “very,very small number” of customers were unable to meet their repayments,and households were changing their spending to cover their mortgages.