Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

And I will. I will refer to a member of that unseemly 12, of that dirty dozen, as the member for Mackellar.

Mr Falinski interjecting—

The member for Mackellar has outed himself! He's outed himself as the shop steward of this group. They claim:

It’s fair to say that in Canberra if you get most members of parliament, regardless of which side they sit, without a microphone around them you wouldn’t find a lot of support for an increase in the super guarantee much over 10 per cent.

I look behind me and I see Labor members of parliament. Are we agreeing with that?

Honourable members interjecting—

He is in a minority in his own party room, and he's certainly a minority in this parliament. The empty vessels sometimes make the most noise, don't they? If only he was alone a few days ago. A few days ago, the newly minted senator from New South Wales, who once worked for an organisation that was very, very attached to superannuation, described superannuation as 'a cancer'. The senator for New South Wales said:

I would change direction: superannuation should be made voluntary for Australians earning under $50,000.

You've only got to think for about 30 seconds—three seconds if you're a quick thinker; 30 seconds if you're the member for McKellar—to understand that that means if you're a high-income earner you get massive tax breaks and if you're a low-income earner you're going to be paying more tax on that money, which is deferred to wages as opposed to superannuation. So this is a recommendation for higher tax on low-paid workers.

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