Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. Will the minister inform the House how the government is supporting good jobs and more secure retirement for Australia's part-time and lower paid working people? Minister, how are these policies helping to build a stronger economy, and are there any obstacles?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. He is very interested in what happens to Australia's part-time workers. He knows there are 3½ million Australians who work part time. He also knows there are 3.6 million Australians who earn less than $37,000 a year. Some of the occupations that these people represent include the checkout operators in our supermarkets, the hairdressers in our high street, childcare workers, people who are midwives and nurses, and receptionists. None of them have enough to retire on. Let me repeat that: a lot of Australians do not have enough to retire on currently.

The good news for a lot of those occupations I just mentioned is that from 1 July this year there will be hundreds of dollars extra in people's superannuation accounts because of Labor, hundreds of dollars which will in the next 10 and 20 years translate into tens of thousands of dollars in retirement income because they do not have to pay the 15 per cent tax on their superannuation contributions. I will repeat that: because of Labor, low-paid Australians will not have to pay 15 per cent tax on their superannuation. As of 1 July this policy will benefit 3½ million Australians, many of whom are women.

I was asked by the member for Deakin whether there are any obstacles to this policy. Unfortunately there is one great big new obstacle to this policy, which is the opposition's great big new tax on people who do not earn a lot of money. They want to put a new tax on people's superannuation contributions. Let me repeat that: with every person opposite, a vote for them is a vote for a new 15 per cent tax on people's superannuation. When coalition members go up to the high street in their local suburbs and are getting their hair cut or getting their kids picked up from child care or when they are shopping in the supermarket, no doubt those opposite benefit from the work of the low paid. I wonder if those opposite ever have the courage to tell 3½ million Australians that a vote for a coalition MP is a vote for a new tax on people's superannuation. I am sure they do not.

So there is a very clear choice. When you vote for the mob opposite, you are voting for a new tax, a 15 per cent tax on their savings. Every person opposite in the coalition, do you know what they stand for? They stand for less money in retirement for hard-working part-time workers and low-paid workers. I promise the coalition that we will never give up on this argument. You have got the wrong policy, you have backed the wrong issue. Those opposite are not on the side of the poor, they are not on the side of the low paid, they are not on the side of part-time workers. We will never give up on this argument. Frankly, I do not care when you give up on it because you will, and every day you do not give up on your silly policy is another vote for the Labor government. Thank you.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will, again, remind the minister of the use of the word 'you'.