With Labor opposed to the six-member SMSF measure, the Liberal Party yesterday agreed to remove the amendment for this measure from the Treasury Laws Amendment (2019 Measures No. 1) Bill 2019 in order to try and pass the bill.

The bill contained a raft of other unrelated measures including an amendment to extend concessional rates of excise to craft beer brewers.

Liberal MP Scott Buchholz said that it was “regrettable that the opposition would not support a sensible change to that law and thus provide additional choice for flexibility for Australians to manage their retirement savings”.

“The government continues to support this change and will seek progress on that at a later time,” Mr Buchholz said.

SuperConcepts general manager for technical services and education Peter Burgess previously predicted that the six-member SMSF amendment could be removed, given that it was the only controversial measure in the bill. 

The measure to increase the SMSF member limit had mixed opinions, with some experts flagging the potential risks that additional members pose in terms of disputes between members and estate planning.

Some SMSF members intended to use the measure to add accumulation members to their fund to reduce the impact of Labor’s policy changes to franking credits.