Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week, the Prime Minister has betrayed tens of thousands of people in my electorate in Newcastle by freezing increases to the superannuation guarantee and by abolishing the low-income superannuation contribution. As former Prime Minister Keating, father of compulsory superannuation in Australia, said this week, the Prime Minister and Treasurer, in cahoots with the Palmer United Party, are undertaking wilful sabotage of the nation's universal savings scheme.

In his own words, the Prime Minister made a clear, categoric commitment to Australians that there would be 'no unexpected, adverse changes to superannuation' when he was in government. But his decision this week to freeze increases to super and abolish the low-income superannuation contribution can be dressed up in no other way. It is undeniably an adverse change to superannuation. The Prime Minister and the Palmer United Party have ripped away retirement savings from 3.6 million low income workers, including 2.1 million women and more than 19,000 low-income earners in Newcastle who will be stripped of the low-income superannuation contribution.

A 25-year-old in my electorate earning a typical wage of $55,000 will have about $9,500 less in their retirement superannuation savings by 2025 because of these changes. Constituents in my electorate have been contacting me about their concerns for super for months. Low-paid workers in aged care and nursing have asked me to do everything I can to save the low-income superannuation contribution and I will. (Time expired)