Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Is this the next stage in the fear campaign—you are not safe even in your superannuation funds? The thing that the opposition never speak about is what the impact of their policy will cost the economy, what the impact of their policy will cost Australian families, now and out to 2020 and beyond. The senator knows that in the context of the last parliament we worked in great detail with industries, including the company that she mentions and other companies and industries in Australia, who will be paying a carbon price for the pollution that they emit. We worked in great detail with them because we are a Labor Party, a Labor government, that have always supported jobs and have always supported superannuation. May I say, this is in stark contrast to those on the other side, who are actually opposing an increase in superannuation, which is consistent with their past performance of opposing the introduction, as I recall it, of superannuation for working Australians. So I think the opposition’s position on this is quite clearly hypocritical.

The other point I would make is that the government has released costings which show that the policy of the coalition would cost some $30 billion out to 2020. I would invite the senator to consider the impact of that cost, not only on the budget but on the economy as a whole, and reflect perhaps on the economic impact on the families she now professes to be supporting in the context of her question.