Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With house prices at record highs, young people don't know if they'll ever be able to buy a home. Housing insecurity is a structural problem. It's not a superannuation problem. Accessing superannuation to solve the housing problem is a disastrous idea. It's just handballing the problem to younger generations and women. It's likely to pump up prices even more, leaving people with less savings and more debt. It still won't fix the housing problem; plus, it'll lead to substantial future financial loss with a greater cost to the taxpayer in the long run. Look at what happened during the COVID pandemic. Those who took early withdrawals will lose big money, up to $120,000 by retirement age. It's opportunistic and dishonest to encourage people to do this. It's robbing them of a secure future.

What could we do instead? We could encourage voluntary super contributions for first home buyers, including the option to withdraw extra contributions and their associated earnings later, and extend this option to allow women to make tax-free extra contributions, thereby addressing the gender gap in superannuation savings.