Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition said on 16 May that there would be a great big new tax on the superannuation contributions of people who earn less than $37,000. This is a bad policy for three simple reasons. Firstly, a person who earns $37,000 pays an effective tax rate on their income of about 9½ per cent—fair enough. But if the Liberals were elected, they would pay 15 per cent on their super. What economic genius in the coalition said it was better for low-paid workers to pay more tax on their super than on their take-home income?

But it does not stop there. There is another bad reason for this 15 per cent coalition tax. It is that 2.2 million Australians earning less than $37,000 are women. Women already have a gender pay gap. Women already do not get the chance to save as much money as men for retirement. But do you think that will stop the coalition putting a new tax on part-time women workers? Not at all. They want to put a new tax.

But of course the real problem in what they are proposing is not that they want to rob shop assistants or cleaners or kitchen hands—that is bad enough, but that does not convince them. It is that they want to hand back billions of dollars to multinational mining companies. This is the problem. We want to axe the tax on low-paid workers—they want to rob them. We want multinational mining companies to pay some of their returns to all of Australia—they want to give it back. Hands off our superannuation.

Opposition members interjecting—

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