Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The low-income superannuation contribution program makes sure that people earning less than $37,000 a year do not have to pay more tax on their super than they do on their ordinary wages. The people who have been helped by this program are honest people working honest jobs. They are teacher aides, security guards, cleaners and shop assistants. For the most part, they are women. The Economic References Committee inquiry into economic security for women in retirement has heard witness after witness speak in favour of this program, and we have heard from unions, business groups, actuaries and accountants.

The ATO's quarterly report reveals that 2,238,000 people benefitted from the program between October and December last year. Unlike people who negatively gear their seventh house, however, these 2.2 million people are low-income earners. There is no place for them in a coalition budget. That is why the low-income superannuation contribution program was scrapped by the Abbott-Turnbull government, a change that will come into place in 2017. This is a program that helps some of Australia's most vulnerable workers, and the government has shown yet again that it simply does not care about them.

Question agreed to.