Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt. Okay, you got me. The member for Sturt says he worries about the wages of people, even though he has no form guide for ever voting for it. What we see is that people who earn less than $37,000 under Labor's proposal pay no tax on their superannuation contributions. This is actually sensible, because when we go back to what the Liberals and the Palmer United Party have done, people will be paying more tax on their superannuation than they would at their effective marginal tax rate. Only a Liberal! They are so out of touch with how poorer Australians earn their living that only they could dream up having a higher tax on compulsory savings than they would on the money that people take home. These are the sorts of people we are dealing with. But it does not just stop there. Not only have they broken a promise—and believe me, Mr Abbott, you have broken this promise and we will hold you to it; they have cut the tax refund which low-paid Australians get. What they are actually doing is that they want people to work longer and receive less in terms of their aged pension when they retire. This is a government who has never seen a lower paid Australian whom they did not want to slug. I love their false indignation on behalf of ordinary Australians. If they really cared about ordinary Australians they would not be delaying or freezing their superannuation increases. If they really cared about lower paid Australians, ordinary Australians battling to make ends meet, they would not be cutting the indexation rate of the age pension. If they really cared about lower paid or ordinary Australians, they would not be taking away the tax refund. Tony Abbott, though, has form on superannuation.

See this speech in context