Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Ayres just belled the cat: he said superannuation was a national asset. It is not a national asset. It belongs to the people. It belongs in their individual bank accounts. This rubbish that it generates a return—people are paying 6½ per cent on their mortgage after tax. There isn't a super fund that is paying 10 per cent pre-tax at all. People are being forced to put money into superannuation when they could be paying down their mortgage at 6½ per cent.

Superannuation is a rip. It costs $50 billion in tax concessions for the mainly upper 25 per cent. It costs another $30 billion a year to run. And what's the average balance? The median balance for men aged 60 to 65 is $211,000. That will not get them off the pension. The median balance for women aged 60 to 64 is $158,000. It isn't going to do a thing to get people off the pension. It is nothing but a junket for rich people, the big end of town, the big corporates and the big unions who are milking hardworking Australians dry. For Senator Ayres to be saying it's a great national asset, nothing could be further from the truth.

Superannuation was set up by Paul Keating, Bill Kelty and Iain Ross. Iain Ross became famous as the president of the Fair Work Commission. They mandated superannuation and they mandated vaccines. And who in these industry funds actually gets to vote for the directors on the board? No-one. Because it is not democratic. It is communism. You have now got $3 trillion in centralised wealth controlled by 17 industry funds who all use the same proxy adviser at these AGMs to control what goes on in the economy. If you control $3 trillion in capital, you control industry and you control the media. It is unmitigated fascism, communism, and Marxism. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.