SMSF expert and LightYear Docs founder Grant Abbott will seek to re-establish his political party after an earlier attempt narrowly missed out on being registered before the May federal election.
A political party needs to provide at least 500 names that are not affiliated with another party and are eligible to vote in order to be registered as a party with Abbott falling short by one name in his previous attempt before the election.
Abbott said he was taking steps to register The SMSF Party with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and would be surveying those people who had expressed an interest in the party previously.
In an email to this group Abbott stated, “At this stage it is important to go through the registration process again as some of the names we submitted to the AEC were affiliated with another party thereby making them unable to be registered for the SMSF Party.”
Abbott has requested this group provide sufficient identifying information so the fledgling party can provide 500 ‘clean names’ to the AEC and also invited them to provide input into the development of policies for the party.
He said after the party was registered it would meet with its members, formulate policy, interview people who have indicated they would stand as candidates for the party and seek to meet with the federal government.
“Self funded retirees and SMSF members and trustees need their smarts and most importantly of all, their input into the political process. The drama of the last election carried us through in terms of refundable franking credits but with a full investigation of the retirement incomes system coming up, we need our say,” Abbott said.
“We will be heading to Canberra to meet with the current government, introducing ourselves getting a seat at the retirement incomes table. Someone has to stand up for self-funded retirees and SMSF members and trustees, it certainly won’t be the unions and their industry super funds!”
In the email to party members, Abbott flagged a number of issues the party was looking at stating the current level of the concessional contribution cap was inequitable compared to earlier cap levels and also labelled the pension limit threshold of $1.6 million as inadequate.
He also suggested refundable franking credits be enshrined in legislation and family home downsizing contributions should be excluded from the assets tests to release real estate stock for the next generation of home buyers.
Earlier this year, Abbott described the return of the federal government as an opportunity for the SMSF sector to promote itself to superannuants in the retail and industry funds sector.
