Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to address the Senate on the question of superannuation policy. People will be aware that New South Wales has been enduring a very lengthy lockdown. One of the major issues that has come out of this lockdown has been the disproportionate impact on small businesses. It's all well and good for people who work in the public sector or for big businesses to be immune from the crisis, but it's the people who are in personal care sectors that are most affected. These are the travel agents, barbers and hairdressers, beauticians—the list goes on. One of the questions that comes up regularly in conversations I have with people who are working in these affected small-business sectors is: why can't they get access to their super like they could last year? Last year we put forward a very effective policy called early release super, which was very engaging for people. I think it is quite mean and nasty that we would deny people access to their own money above and beyond disaster support payments.

This takes me to a couple of policy ideas that I have. One is that there should be a permanent early release scheme for people. People can get access to their super now for IVF and lap-band surgery where trustees grant it. I think that, in the absence of the government wanting to put in place a permanent scheme, it is appropriate that trustees look upon the cases raised by small-business people in particular and grant them access to their own money—because it is, after all, their own money. If they are going to grant people access to their own money for IVF and lap-band surgery, and if small businesses are at risk of never recovering from the lockdowns, then they should be granted access to their super. I'm very happy to assist people in making those representations.

The other issue is that we need to pursue longer-term productivity-enhancing reforms. Super is a huge bet the nation has taken, and it is probably one of the riskiest policies we've ever enacted. Ten per cent of people's money goes off to these funds and they generally manage it quite poorly. I have already discussed how people are denied access to this money. It was given to the financial institutions and the unions by politicians 30 years ago for various political reasons—