Anthony Albanese tells Peter Dutton to ‘smile more’ during superannuation debate

Anthony Albanese has deflected questions about superannuation by mocking Peter Dutton’s ‘angry ranting’ and telling him to campaign with Dominic Perrottet instead.

The prime minister was asked in Question Time if he stood by his ‘we have no intention to make any super changes’ statement on May 2 last year.

The opposition has relentlessly attacked Mr Albanese’s plan to cut tax concessions for Australians with super funds of more than $3 million.

A poll showed two-thirds of voters support the changes, which would tax super contributions at 30 per cent for about 80,000 Australians instead of 15 per cent.

Mr Albanese barely began answering when Mr Dutton angrily interjected that he was not addressing the question. 

‘Once again, more angry ranting. What happened to the smile? You were gonna smile more, Peter! You were gonna smile more!’ the PM responded.

‘What happened to Happy Peter?! Where’s it gone?! Where’s it gone? So much anger, so much vitriol.’

The House of Representatives devolved into a rowdy mess as Speaker Milton Dick tried to get the chamber under control.

Mr Albanese insisted he was just responding to the interjections, complaining it was ‘hard to respond when someone is just yelling nonstop from go to woe’.

Once he was able to continue, the PM sarcastically challenged Mr Dutton to sink NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s reelection chances by campaigning against the superannuation changes.

‘We’re a government for all Australians. They are a government for one half of one per cent of Australians. And I encourage them to go to the wall for that one half of one per cent,’ he said, in reference to the 80,000 richest Australians.

‘I encourage the leader of the opposition to go to the Liberal Party launch on Sunday and to stand up and introduce Dominic Perrottet as the premier of NSW, and say that this is the hill they’re going to die on.’

Mr Albanese ended Question Time with another dig at Mr Dutton over the NSW election on March 25.

‘It’s no wonder that the leader of the opposition has not appeared with the NSW premier since last October,’ he said.

‘There’s a forcefield around the NSW premier, he’s very happy to appear with me, as is the Tasmania Liberal premier, about getting constructive measures done.’

Mr Albanese ended Question Time with another dig at Mr Dutton over the NSW election on March 25

The PM took glee in pointing out that the last time Mr Dutton skipped a campaign launch was when the Victorian Liberals were easily beaten by Daniel Andrews on November 26.

‘I say this to the leader of the opposition, don’t miss out this Sunday. He missed out on the Victorian Liberal Party campaign and look where that got them,’ he said.

‘Don’t make the same mistake twice, get out there and back him. I’ll miss [the launch] but I encourage to attend on Sunday, introduce Premier Perrottet and I’m sure that will be a very successful thing.’

Mr Dutton’s earlier interjections began when Mr Albanese used the question from deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley to spruik his government’s achievements.

‘The member would be aware that the super changes that we have announced do not take effect until 2025. That is after – after the next election,’ he said.

‘But I do thank the deputy leader for the opportunity to speak about the promises that we made at the election and what we’ve delivered.’