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

When former Prime Minister Paul Keating established the compulsory superannuation system, the universal superannuation system, he viewed it, and we view it, as an investment in the nation's future, and that's exactly what it has become: Australian workers owning retirement savings investments, building a pool of national savings in the national interest but also in the interests of ordinary Australians for their retirement savings.

It is relevant and on point that this bill is aimed at addressing an anomaly between the superannuation tax administration arrangements acts, superannuation acts, and the adjustment in the pension age. The pension age has been adjusted from 65 and 66 through to 67. What this reflects is the fact that Australians are now living longer, and it also reflects the fact that we have an ageing population.

This is apposite to the second reading amendment, because prior to former Prime Minister Paul Keating, together with former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, establishing the universal superannuation system—beginning in 1985-86 with Accord Mark II through the award system—30 per cent of Australians had access to superannuation. We had a name for them: men. Women had very little superannuation. Less than 20 per cent of women in the workforce had access to superannuation. Superannuation prior to that was something that was available to salaried men in the workforce, and not really available to the rest of the workforce. That one move, extending it to award superannuation, expanded superannuation coverage of the workforce from around 30 per cent to close to 50 per cent inside of a year, growing again to 60 per cent within another year or two. But it was the superannuation guarantee legislation of 1992 which extended universal superannuation to the entire workforce. As a result of that decision, Australians now have a tax assisted means of saving for their retirement.

Members opposite will often say that it is their money; they should be able to do with it what they like. It is absolutely members' money, not one dollar of which would exist in a member's superannuation account if we had listened to members opposite—not one dollar of it!

They opposed it in 1985 and 1986, when Accord Mark II was struck, and they have opposed every single dollar of superannuation that has gone into workers' superannuation accounts, from the first moment until today. Nothing is more galling to those of us who have followed the passage of superannuation from its very beginning, and have been consistent in our advocacy for workers' superannuation, than hearing those opposite try to pretend that they are champions of individual workers' superannuation, when they have opposed every single cent of it. Those three million Australians who have accessed their superannuation through the early access scheme have the architects of superannuation, Australian Labor, to thank for that, not this mob over here, because not one cent of it would have existed in those accounts if they'd listened to the ranting and the railing of those members opposite. Yes, it is their money, and it's there because Australian Labor had the foresight and the courage to push through the opposition of those opposite, to push through the opposition of the coalition parties, to ensure that workers in this country had access to the same sorts of superannuation arrangements that the salaried men had enjoyed for decades.

I want to talk a little bit about the ageing population. When the Keating government initiated the superannuation guarantee levy, the ratio of workers to retirees sat at around 6½ or seven to one. That is to say, for every one retiree, there were six to seven people within the workforce, with their tax contributions funding, amongst other things, the pension payments of those retirees. We knew back in 1985 that, with the demographic shift, the ageing population, it was simply going to be unaffordable down the track, without significant tax increases or significant reductions in pension payments, for Australia to be able to provide a level of pension payments that was going to keep pace with cost-of-living increases and the expectations of Australians for a dignified retirement. We knew that to be true when the ratio of retirees to workers was one to six.

An honourable member interjecting—

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