Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

This is a very interesting point for the shadow Treasurer to make. Again, the opposition have been at sixes and sevens on this. Of course, they have always opposed superannuation, as my colleague the Minister for Finance and Deregulation pointed out. They opposed the introduction of compulsory superannuation; they said it would have an impact on small business, they said it would drive small business out of operation and they said it would increase the cost of employing people. They said all that through the 1980s and 1990s—and, again, when the government announced the decision to increase the superannuation guarantee, they came out and said, ‘This will be a tax on small business and it will reduce take-home pay for Australians.’ I note that a couple of weeks ago Senator Abetz issued a press release asserting that it would come out of take-home pay. I fail to see how that could be at one with their constant claims over recent weeks, and indeed over recent decades, that superannuation was an impost on small business.

I make the point that the increase in the superannuation guarantee from nine per cent to 12 per cent is being phased in by this government at a more gradual rate and over a longer period than even the original nine per cent—moving from the three per cent in awards to nine per cent. We are moving from nine to 12 over a more gradual period, and we are doing so in conjunction with reductions in the corporate tax rate. There are times when the superannuation guarantee going from three to nine per cent coincided with increases in the corporate tax rate. We are doing so with reductions in the corporate tax rate and we are doing so over that long period, starting at increments of 0.25 per cent—which is half the average increment under the previous increase from three to nine per cent—to enable plenty of time for employers, employees and unions to build these into their negotiations. I have no doubt that employers will argue in those negotiations and before tribunals that these should be taken into account. I am sure that will be the case, and a number of unions have recognised it.

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