Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

This is what some of your comrades said back in the nineties. David Connolly MP said compulsory superannuation was ‘absolutely abhorrent’. He said, ‘Australia does not need, and cannot afford, these proposals at this time.’ That sounds similar to what we are hearing now. Wilson Tuckey—well missed!—said that superannuation was ‘stupid and dishonest’. Senator Alston said it would ‘be little short of lunacy to introduce a massive new cost burden on employers’. Remember Senator Panizza? This is a good one:

The worst case scenario is the loss of 100,000 jobs …

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Businesses and organisations will simply not be able to afford it …

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Small businesses will be closed down …

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… 100,000 jobs are on the line …

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I can see those 100,000 jobs quite easily going out the door within a very few years.

Senator Watson said there would ‘be rising unemployment as a result of this levy’. Senator Crichton-Browne said compulsory superannuation was yet another threat to Australia’s future economic prosperity. Allan Rocher said it would ‘have a disastrous impact on business’ and it was ‘a tax on jobs’.

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