Labor is pushing to cut cash refunds for ­excess franked dividends, which critics are calling a tax on retirees.

The proposed plan will remove the ­rebate component of the ­imputation credits system which allows shareholders and self-managed super funds to cash in unused credits.

Geoff Wilson from Wilson Asset Management, who has been leading a campaign against the policy, is now being attacked by federal Labor who are calling into question the legitimacy of his online petition.

“This petition has taken an interesting twist,” says Chris Smith.

“The signatures include some familiar names like Andrew Leigh, Michelle Rowland and Chris Bowen.”

The interesting inclusion of these names has led Mr Bowen to lash out at Mr Wilson, accusing him of faking signatures.

Mr Wilson tells Chris they have “an incredibly robust system with their petition” where all signees receive a personalised response from him to help weed out any dodgy people signing up on behalf of other email addresses.

It was when he received correspondence from Mr Bowen asking to be removed from the list that he became “incredibly suspicious that they were trying to hatch a plan to discredit the size of the petition”.

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview

Mr Wilson says he was subsequently contacted by a journalist from the Australian Financial Review about Labor’s claims the petition is dodgy.

“We knew that if it was leaked by Labor then you knew they’re guilty,” he tells Chris.

“I’ve just been appalled… resorting to that sort of dirty, underhanded tactics is just… appalling.”

If you would like to support the campaign to scrap Labor’s plans, go to the petition on Wilson Asset Management’s website by clicking HERE.