Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier this week I spoke here about the personal income tax relief that's going to be received soon by more than 75,000 of my constituents and hardworking and aspiring Australians right across the country. Thousands of small to medium businesses in Brisbane are already enjoying the benefits of our business tax relief implemented last year, and this relief is giving 30,000 small and medium business owners in Brisbane the confidence that they need to employ more Australians and to deliver those opportunities and the prosperity that we want to see. That's why we saw, in 2017, a year of record jobs growth—the highest jobs growth recorded in Australia's history, with over 1,100 jobs a day, on average, delivered across Australia, the vast bulk of them full-time jobs. About half of Australia's workforce works in those small and medium enterprises, the 30,000-odd that I mentioned in Brisbane among them. The government's strong economic plan means that all of the workers in those thousands and thousands of small and medium enterprises now have more confidence, more job security, more opportunities.

In Brisbane, many of these workers are ambitious young people who are juggling both study and work, aspiring to get ahead. This government wants to do everything that it can to support their aspirations, to support the opportunities that they need to realise their dreams. These aspirational young men and women are one of the reasons why I often return to talk to the important subject of savings and superannuation. Last week, I had a meeting with the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services to discuss the changes the government is making to ensure that the superannuation system works as well as it possibly can for young Australians, including all of those young aspiring men and women in Brisbane that I'm here to represent. We want to make sure that these young people can get the very best out of their superannuation investments to support them and the future lifestyle that they aspire to.

Over the last almost two years since having been elected, I've been listening very closely to people in the mobile offices that I hold, week in, week out, in every suburb around Brisbane. I've been listening to many of the stories, the hopes, the dreams, the aspirations, including those of the young people in Brisbane, and that's why I'm so pleased to share some of the important news and the reforms that are coming forward in the space of superannuation. From 1 July, next week, young people who voluntarily contribute to their super fund will be able to withdraw up to $15,000 to use as part of a deposit on their first home. This First Home Super Saver Scheme is a commitment of this government, and it's intended to empower young people to secure a stable financial future. It's part of the new tranche of reforms that have been passed by our government.

There are a number of policy areas where Australians, myself among them, have been disappointed by the damage done by those opposite when they had their hands on the levers of power down here in Canberra. Superannuation is, sadly, one of those areas where the policies of those opposite have caused hundreds of millions of dollars or maybe billions of dollars to be ripped out of young people's retirement funds due to a number of glaring problems with the superannuation system. So I'm really pleased that these reforms of this government are going to cap administration fees on low-balance accounts, ban exit fees for people wishing to switch funds and more proactively reunite people with lost super accounts. By making it easier for people to consolidate their super, we will help hardworking and aspiring Australians to gain even more financial confidence in their future. And we're also taking steps to protect the financial future of young Australians by removing compulsory and expensive insurance policies that young people may not wish to specifically opt into. At the end of the day, we want to support young people and protect their hard-earned savings, because it is, after all, their money in their superannuation accounts, and we want to do that by making sure that the superannuation scheme will really work for all Australians as it's intended to do. (Time expired)

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