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

I thank the member for his question. It is true that Labor stands behind superannuation—30 years of history. It is making our economy stronger. It is making Australians wealthier in retirement. The average Australian woman today is retiring with $120,000 in superannuation, and the average Australian male with $180,000 in superannuation. This July, superannuation contributions will go up by 0.5 per cent. Every single one of those dollars and every single per cent has been opposed by those opposite. We stand for superannuation. We believe that it should be performing well and we believe that every single dollar that is contributed to a superannuation fund should be used for the purpose of advancing members' retirement income, which is why, upon coming into government, we reviewed all of the transparency arrangements that were applying to superannuation funds and the reporting arrangements. When we did that review, we discovered there were big gaps. Yes, it is true that the members opposite, in the previous government, introduced new reporting arrangements. They were politically driven and ensured that members received misleading and ambiguous information. So we have reviewed these arrangements and put in place new reporting and new transparency arrangements. No. 1: as a result of the legislation introduced by me—

See this speech in context