Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to say in the House today and to all the people in my electorate that I really encourage people to put away money for their superannuation. As your federal MP, I'm a big believer in superannuation. My father gave me some great advice as a 19-year-old. He said, 'Luke, put away $80 a month,' when I was 18. At the time, I thought: '$80 a month! That's a lot of money!' But, in hindsight, it helped me build a superannuation balance. So I say to all women and all men in my electorate that I would encourage you to put away money into super because you can put your cash away and save a lot of tax. At the moment, most people are on a 32½ per cent tax rate. Under super, they can put in contributions at 15 per cent and save a lot of money, so it's well worth doing.

I want to congratulate the coalition's first speaker today, the Minister for Jobs, Industrial Relations and Women, the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer, for reducing the gender pay gap since the Labor years. In the Labor years, just five short years ago, the gender pay gap was 17.2 per cent. That's a fact. Now it's down to 14.5 per cent. That's also a fact. If we were to keep that rate up for the next few years, the gender pay gap would be solved very quickly. So congratulations to the minister for women. Congratulations to the government. We've got a lot more work to do, but we'll keep going.

Labor, on the other hand—we hear a lot from members opposite. They don't talk about the $200 billion in new taxes that they want to hit the ADF and everyone else who works in this country with—another $200 billion in new taxes because they can't balance the budget or organise spending properly. The fact is that Labor's retirement tax will hurt women the most. For women who might be on a pension, who are being left shares and who are getting a refund, they're going to take that refund from them—fact.

They also talk about the Fair Work Commission and penalty rates. They don't talk about the fact that penalty rates are being reduced from double time and a half to double time and a quarter in many rates and that the reason the Fair Work Commission mentioned that was that they thought it would give more women increased hours.

Ms Lamb interjecting—

Don't shake your head at me, Member for Longman. You're the one who supports Coles under EBAs that have cut the guts out of penalty rates. You get up there with your Easter card. I'm onto you.

The fact is that those opposite—I like the member for Longman; it's all right—voted against the First Home Super Saver Scheme as well. The First Home Super Saver Scheme is a good scheme. It helps women get into their first home, and it helps them keep more of their own cash, taxed at 15 per cent rather than 32½ per cent.

Those opposite also voted against the massive income tax cuts that will help members of the ADF, people who work at Coles, teachers and a lot of people in the gallery. Everyone earning up to $200,000 will pay no more than 32½ per cent. Labor have stated that they'll unwind that and they'll reinsert a 37 per cent tax rate, with everything over $180,000 at 45 per cent. Higher taxes—that's what you'll get if you vote for Labor.

The fact is that we're helping women into work. We heard the minister for women say there have been a million jobs created in the last five years. Fifty-eight per cent of those new jobs have gone to women.

We've also brought in the Protecting Your Superannuation Package. The Protecting Your Superannuation Package will basically stop the rorts and the rip-offs in the superannuation sector, providing significant benefits to the financial security of millions of Australian women. It helps their super not to be eroded. We've also brought in the superannuation policy top-up for women. At the moment, women can put in $25,000 a year maximum, but, if you have a child and you're out of work for three years and you can afford to perhaps put in $55,000 the next year when you're back in the workforce, we're enabling women to do that.

Finally, I want to say, on the Labor policy, that I think, as a member of the government, that super on paid parental leave is actually not a bad idea. I actually support that idea, and I'm happy to put that on the record. I would encourage the government, if we can afford it, to implement that. I don't, however, think that the $450 a month is relevant at all. It equates to a $16,200 saving over 30 years and with compound interest might reach $30,000. We do have a strong pension scheme that will help women.

See this speech in context