Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (More Flexible Superannuation) Bill 2020. Superannuation is one of the reforms that have made our country's social security system the envy of the entire world. Universal superannuation, created by Labor, is a national achievement which sits alongside Medicare and the NDIS. It's made our nation stronger and our society fairer, and super is critical to creating jobs and growth in the recovery. The $3 trillion pool of super savings not only creates a retirement nest egg for Australians; it is being invested in infrastructure and businesses which are generating wealth and creating jobs. Labor are proud of our superannuation system and we will fight to defend it. Our superannuation system needs to be strengthened and protected at this time, not undermined.

Now, more than ever, Australians are relying on the government to do the right thing and keep their promise to raise Australian super payments, not cut them. But, if Australians listened to the histrionics in this very chamber from government members this week, they could be forgiven for thinking that super is an ideological weapon serving the nefarious ends of 'reds under the bed', trying to destroy Australian values and society from within.

I'm not specifically referring to the member for Goldstein's spirited denunciation of socialism whilst he was speaking on this bill, though it was another excellent demonstration of the lather into which the government typically whips itself over superannuation. But for the record—and I've always said this—I do believe that he is still the undisputed greatest thespian in this House of Representatives! Apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker; I digress a little bit, but I think it's worth pointing out that he is the greatest thespian. The government are big on theatre, but I think, instead of giving us drooling ideological meltdowns to cover up backflipping on a promise to the Australian people, they should honour their promise to grow the super on which Australians rely in retirement.

The government's instinctive reaction to attack super is just as irrational as their ideological fixation on cutting the ABC or privatising the Public Service. It has become an article of faith, and a bad one, rather than a considered policy in the national interest. Surely, I would have thought, we could all agree in this place on the general principle that no-one deserves to be left behind in retirement. But too many Australians will retire without enough. No-one should be forced to work into their 70s. Is that such a threatening proposition for the members opposite? Is that idea really worth the government's coordinated attacks to undermine super—to force 2.5 million Australians to raid their retirement savings just to get through this COVID crisis?

Those opposite are using COVID-19 as an excuse to cut Australian super. If they do that, there will be fewer funds to make the investments needed to create jobs and drive growth to boost the economic recovery. As the shadow Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones, has rightly pointed out:

So much of the noise going on about superannuation at the moment comes from politicians who get 15% super themselves, but don't support superannuation for others and want to knock it off.

What we've seen in the crisis is the government use super to subsidise its own package—making Australians pay with their own savings for the stimulus measures the government announced to the sound of trumpets and relentless press releases—without even blushing.

I don't pretend to know or even understand why the government and the members opposite make super such an ideological obsession. I don't think I'll ever grasp the world view that sees security and comfort in retirement for all Australians as a threat to the Liberal Party. But what I do know is how successful super has been and how at risk it is from a government which, having robbed the proverbial Peter to pay Paul, now comes back not with thanks and praise but with inexplicable vengeance in mind. This is after super has basically underwritten the government's privatised stimulus package, after we've seen an aggregate loss of savings for Australians under the age of 35 of more than $44 billion and after a loss of savings in all age groups of over $100 billion. You'd think the government would celebrate super at a time like this, rather than demonising and cutting it. And now the PM and Senator Jane Hume close in with scalpel in hand to cut super. Just like Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister, and the current Prime Minister, they're promising this will improve wages for workers. It wasn't true last time and it won't be true this time. Cutting super is a pay cut, pure and simple.

I'd like to introduce some basic figures about the national and local scale of the challenge we're facing. This is important because, without a factual basis to our debate, this august House would risk becoming nothing but an echo chamber of contending ideological trims and narrow political self-interest. The size and scale of super is easily seen in these 10 key facts. One: there are over 15 million members of Australia's super system. Two: over 80 per cent of Australians aged 25 to 54 hold a super account. Three: the superannuation system collectively manages over $2.8 trillion in assets. Four: this is more than 140 per cent of our GDP. Five: this will grow to around $10 trillion in assets by 2040. Six: 60 per cent of all Australians have a super account, compared to 25 per cent who watch the grand final, 44 per cent who read a book each year and 49 per cent who are in the labour force; 60 per cent of all Australians have a superannuation account. Seven: super has helped Australia to invest in its own infrastructure, agriculture, resources and companies, without which foreign investment would have shipped even more profits overseas. Eight: the current average balance at retirement is $157,000 for women—and we must do better—and $270,000 for men. Nine: the median balance at retirement will be more than $300,000 for women and $600,000 for men. Ten: cutting super will make things worse for women in our nation. Twenty-three per cent of women in the 60 to 64 age group have no superannuation. Forty per cent of older, single, retired women live in poverty and experience economic insecurity in retirement, and this is a national shame.

This is what we risk losing. We need to take action. This is a super system we have built up over decades, ransacked by an ungrateful government to pay for its own stimulus with Australians' savings. Then there's another cut, breaking an election promise. Where I am from, in the Northern Territory, the role of super is shoring up the government's stimulus, once again relying on people's saving. And it's very large and likely to be long lasting. As of 2 August, 48,000 Territorians, or one in every four NT workers, had taken a combined $347 million out of their super funds as part of the government's early access scheme. Official government data found the NT had one of the highest rates of early super access in the country. According to the NT News, an estimated 6,773 Territorians completely emptied their accounts, while 48,284 people applied to draw up to $20,000 across two rounds.

APRA figures released this week show that for the first time since compulsory superannuation was introduced three decades ago quarterly net contributions to super accounts were negative. This new record makes the long-promised, legislated and overdue superannuation guarantee increase more important, not less. Instead, the government wants to renege on a promise and revert to standard Liberal form of cut, cut, cut, even though it was the Morrison government's own lack of a plan for jobs in the recovery that forced millions of anxious Australians to raid billions of dollars in their retirement savings, even though it was the same irresponsible government that used the cover of the COVID-19 crisis to try to achieve a longstanding Liberal ideological fixation on gutting our superannuation and even though superannuation injected more money into the economy than any single one of the government's stimulus responses. Still, they now want to cut super, which, when they're not cutting the ABC or the Public Service, is red meat for the base. This is just business as usual for the Liberals, who have opposed every single dollar that has been put into a super account since 1993. Superannuation is going to be critical to the economic recovery, with its $3 trillion pool of funds key to investing in infrastructure and business, providing much-needed stimulus and jobs for the Australian economy. It's going to be essential. So now more than ever Australians need the legislated increase in the super guarantee to help build their retirement balances.

In its own words, the government has described itself as ambivalent on superannuation and retirement outcomes, but ambivalence isn't leadership. Labor is not ambivalent on super. We are committed to helping every Australian enjoy a dignified retirement, by sticking to the legislated super increase. Labor created our world-class super system and will always fight to protect it.

I have been speaking with many people in my electorate. As they made the decision to raid their super they were fairly anxious about it, but they saw it as their only hope. They like many other Territorians fell outside the federal government stimulus measures. They were left behind, to a great extent. The fact that people like international students and foreign temporary workers weren't included initially was a disgrace. We tax them heavily as they go to leave the country, letting them use those funds to support themselves was absolutely the right thing to do. It is unfortunate that so many Australians have felt the need to raid their retirement incomes. I feel for them, and we on this side will always fight for them to help them rebuild their superannuation accounts so that they can have those funds in their retirement, as they should have.

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