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

I feel wry amusement listening to the shadow minister argue in favour of a proposition that he just voted against a few moments earlier. The shadow minister calls into question the government's contribution and commitment to superannuation. It was Labor that established the system of universal superannuation in this country, and it is a roaring success. Every day we work to strengthen it, deepen it and improve it. Over the term of our government we've increased the contribution from 10 per cent, and it will go to 12 per cent by July next year. That means that people entering the workplace today will have thousands and thousands of dollars more in their superannuation account than they would have had the coalition had its way and axed those increases in the superannuation guarantee levy.

We've introduced superannuation on paid parental leave, which means that, from next year, women who are leaving the workforce temporarily to look after their child will gain contribution of superannuation on that government funded paid parental leave. It should have happened decades ago, and it's happening as a result of the contribution of this government. It means that that person in retirement will be up to $4,000 better off because of this change. We're introducing payday super, and this is meaningful because too many workers are not getting the superannuation that they are owed. It means that the estimated $4 billion in unpaid superannuation that is occurring every year will be paid on payday, and there will be more money in a worker's superannuation account. Nobody can doubt the commitment of the Albanese Labor government to ensuring that we strengthen and protect our superannuation system.

The change is modest. It will affect less than 0.5 per cent of taxpayers—around 80,000 superannuation fund members with balances of in excess of $3 million. We've heard a lot of noise from the coalition about budget discipline and the need for budget discipline, but the simple fact of the matter is this: we inherited a budget in tatters. It was the biggest debt and the biggest deficit that this country has ever seen. Over the first two years, we turned those big Liberal Party debts and deficits into Labor government surpluses. Over $80 billion worth of savings have been found to pay down their debt and to get the budget back into a sustainable position. They promised it for nine years and didn't deliver it. We've delivered it in our first two budgets.

But you can't do that by just saying it; you can only do that by making the tough decisions. We want to be able to spend more on defence. We want to ensure that our health system is sustainable. We want to ensure that our aged-care system is sustainable. We want to ensure that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is still here in decades to come. To guarantee those things, you've got to ensure you are taking the tough, disciplined and difficult decisions. This modest change to our taxation arrangements will still mean that those 0.5 per cent of taxpayers will have an incredibly concessional taxation arrangement on that proportion of their superannuation fund over $3 million. It will still be concessionally taxed, but not at the same concessional taxation rate. This is a modest change, making our system more sustainable and adding to our efforts to ensure that we can get some fiscal discipline our budget back into shape. For these reasons, we will be opposing the coalition's amendments.

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