Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, hello, Senator Rennick. I do know about your opposition to that. But it was a number of Liberal and Nationals senators and members in the other place who were opposed to super guarantee increases and today remain opposed to superannuation even existing.

Since coming to government, we have been upfront about the challenges in the economy and the budget. We've inherited $1 trillion in debt and the $50 billion structural deficit that we are now trying to fix. This is about responsible budget management, and the government has to make these choices so that we can continue to invest in defence, in health and aged care and in the NDIS. But something about the coalition's priorities has really got me today, and I want to place on the record, in the last minute I have, a speech that former Assistant Treasurer, Senator Rod Kemp gave in Brisbane on 28 May 1999, titled 'The government's approach to super'. In his speech he said:

On coming to Government, it was clear that the existing tax concessions for superannuation were unfairly skewed to high income earners. To address this inequity, the Government—

that is, the Howard government—

introduced the superannuation surcharge.

While this measure has been criticised by some people, there is no question that it meets its equity objective. Nor have I heard any justification of why high income earners should have continued to receive the disproportionately large tax advantages that were available before the introduction of the surcharge.

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