Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I am really surprised at the nature of this conversation given that there has been an inquiry through a Senate committee into these bills, which delved into these sorts of issues in some detail, and given that there has been—as you suggest, Senator McAllister—the opportunity at various Senate estimates committees to delve into these questions in some great detail. I am also surprised that you would not recognise that women across Australia today have greater breaks from the workforce, that women in Australia today have more variation in their income and that women today have lower balances than men. And that is why we put it to you that there is more room for women, proportionately speaking, to make catch-up contributions.

Catch-up concession contributions, as I have indicated, will help around 230,000 people according to the information that we received from Treasury in 2019-20. The take-up and cost of this measure will be dependent on behavioural responses from individuals. But what I will again point out is that women typically have lower account balances than men. Of the individuals estimated to have an account balance of more than $500,000 in 2018-19, only 37 per cent are women. Of the 14.4 million account holders with balances less than half a million in 2013-14, 47.3 per cent are women. Women make up 46.9 per cent of all account holders; 96.8 per cent of female account holders have balances less than half a million compared to 95 per cent of males; and average balances in 2018-19 are expected to be around $108,000 for females and $141,000 for males.

Given the pattern of greater breaks from the workforce for women and the pattern of more significant variation in income for women, we believe that the additional flexibility that comes with being able to play catch-up on retirement savings that would come with this particular measure is particularly beneficial for women. You are entitled to take a different view. You are entitled to move your amendment. You are entitled to seek support for your amendment in the chamber. The government, as I have indicated, will not be supporting it, but in the end we might have to agree to disagree.