Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a government of the top end of town, by the top end of town and for the top end of town. Nowhere is this more evident than in their budget and that dirty, dodgy deal that they did with Clive Palmer over superannuation. They said over and over again that there would be no surprise changes to super and that there would be no deals done with the minor parties. This is another ambush of good people who are just trying to make ends meet and save for their retirement. It says it all about this government in a year of lies and broken promises.

When you go through the list of promises they have kept and broken, you will notice that the only promises they keep are the ones they made to Gina Rinehart. They are a wholly owned subsidiary of the most powerful people in our economy. The latest atrocity is like a funds transfer: straight out of the super accounts of nine million workers and straight into the bank account of Gina Rinehart and the other big miners. When it comes to the low-income super contribution, it comes straight out of the pockets of 28,300 people in my electorate on low incomes and it goes straight into the superannuation balances of 16,000 wealthiest people right around Australia. This is part of a calculated, deliberate attempt to make Australia less fair and to make it less equal. It is another attack on people on low and middle incomes and we will not forget it.