Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The government promised at that time that there would be no new taxes, but, two months later, we saw a new tax—and we have seen a whole heap since then. So it is not always as it seems on the surface. The government are so confused about their own superannuation changes that they cannot even get it right among themselves. We have been hearing it in question time in the House of Reps. The government have been saying, ‘Will you back our super changes?’ We have been saying, ‘We’d love to if we knew what they were. You don’t.’ Although they have made an announcement, the government do not have policies yet. It is quite usual, in terms of a budget, to make an announcement and put an aggregate costing on it—I think the figure is about $6.2 billion—and not break it down so that we can see where the money is being spent. Again, a bit of shenanigans is going on there.

Just six days after the Treasurer, Mr Costello, proclaimed that you do not need to get a financial adviser, Chris Pearce, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, said, ‘I would have thought it would have been quite the opposite.’ So I think the Treasurer and his parliamentary secretary will have to have a bit of a talk and see who is right on this issue. It is certainly an area of concern.

This bill is not controversial. This bill has Labor’s support. Labor have always supported proper and correct moves to enhance Australia’s superannuation regime. We will continue to do that not only because we built the system but also because we are supporters of superannuation. We think superannuation is a very important part of a person’s retirement and that it should be supported.

There are a number of other things which are important to note when discussing these matters. The government said that about 100,000 people are expected to retire next year, implying that this is how many people would save a massive amount of money on the 15 per cent exit tax. But, if you break that down, it is quite misleading, because that is just the number of retirements. It does not go into the detail of who will benefit from it. If you are a CEO retiring on millions of dollars there will be a huge windfall—not that you would need it. But for an ordinary person who is retiring—

See this speech in context