NAB bank head backs in Labor superannuation plan

It will impact about 80,000 Australians and is expected to raise $2 billion in the first full year and $3.2 billion over five years, which will go towards balancing the federal budget rather than being spent.

NAB chief Ross McEwan said $3 million was “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’,” Mr McEwan told ABC radio on Friday.

“But I think $3 million is a lot of money.”

He said the decision would not impact 99.5 per cent of Australians. 

“It will affect a small group of people who had a huge amount of money in those funds – I’m sure they’ll find other things to do with it,” he said.

“So that’s just a reality of where we are. We’re all going to have to play our part to get this economy back into shape, and get the debt down.”

The Financial Services Council found in an analysis of tax office data that over 500,000 taxpayers would be impacted if the change is not indexed, including 204,000 people under the age of 30.

“Leaving the cap stuck at $3 million will mean that in today’s dollars a 30-year-old will have a real cap of around $1 million, calling into question the intergenerational fairness of an unindexed cap,” council CEO Blake Briggs said.

“Caps in the superannuation system are indexed to ensure generational fairness.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, whose coalition would repeal the changes in government, said the government had come up with a “crazy plan”.

“It’s going…