Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s new tax buddy, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, has said that he wouldn’t “rule out making further changes to Australia’s $4.2 trillion superannuation system”, and has other tax changes in the wings.

The political party famous for breeding aspiration i.e., the Labor Party has a new Assistant Treasurer, who says the upcoming super tax won’t kill aspiration. He’s right because the Government’s jumbo slug on earnings in super over $3 million will mean successful people will aspire to earn money in lower tax alternatives.

But wait there’s more, because Daniel Mulino, this new Labor kid on the ministry block, has told the AFR’s Ronald Mizen that he wouldn’t “rule out making further changes to Australia’s $4.2 trillion superannuation system”.

That’s the kind of warning that aspirational wealth-builders will hear that will result in them asking where else they should put their money that’s better than super.

Of course, while up to the $3 million mark, super is a great investment, the $3 million figure isn’t to be indexed. This means that over time more Australians will be caught in Mulino’s super tax net.

In case you’ve forgotten what Labor wants to do with super, here’s a recap:

Labor wants to raise the tax rate from 15% to 30% on superannuation earnings on balances above $3 million. It also wants to tax unrealised capital gains on assets such as businesses, farms and shares held in self-managed super funds. If you’re in Australian Super or other types of industry funds, you’ll also be hit but the pain will be less apparent because most members in these funds just get their returns sent to them. In stark contrast, SMSF trustees are more hands on and more likely to know when and how they’re slugged by the ATO.

While Mulino says the super tax won’t be anti-aspirational because it only hits those with $3 million in super, I’m not sure he knows how aspiration works.

Right now, those with $2 million in super are worried about what they’ll have to do when their balance gets close to $3 million. They are so aspirational that they’re asking people like me what they should do.

They could get advice to start looking at their principal property as an investment vehicle because it’s capital gains tax free. They could look at investment bonds that are tax free after waiting 10 years. While the creators of these products pay the tax along the way, the effective tax should be less than 30% (the new super tax rate) and there wouldn’t be a tax on unrealised gains.

Right now, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Daniel’s partner in this super caper, says 80,000 super players will be affected, number crunchers say over the next 30 years, some 10% of the workforce will be affected.

Mizen makes the point that Mulino is no dummy after getting a PhD in economics from Yale University, (which is where President Donald Trump’s Vice President, J.D. Vance got qualified as a lawyer, but I suspect they were in different political associations on campus).

Mulino also has some big goals. The most immediate ones are:

1. Implement the super changes promised at the election. They weren’t given much prominence, and I guess we can blame Peter Dutton for that!
2. Freeze the excise tax on beer. After these super changes, many Aussies could turn to drink.
3. Ban genetic testing for life insurance policies.

Other areas he wants to fix up are:

4. Stronger financial advice laws.
5. Regulating the crypto sector.
6. Overhaul Apple’s control over the payment’s system.
7. He also wants US tech giants to pay media businesses for using their content, which could put him into a big fight with his fellow Yale alumni, J.D. Vance and his boss Donald Trump.

One thing’s for sure: Daniel Mulino will be a Member of Parliament who won’t go unnoticed. While his party has recruited a smart guy, he could prove to be a financial threat to a lot of aspirational wealth-builders.

As a student, he clearly was aspirational but that doesn’t mean he’s an expert of sowing the seeds of aspiration into others. Only time will tell.

One final point. While the 30% tax on super earnings over $3 million can be dealt with by smart financial advisers and educated super trustees/members, the tax on unrealised gains makes Labor a real worry in terms of what it might cook up for super going forward.

The big question is this: will they take this taxing on unrealised gains to other assets, such as properties and other valuable assets?