Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the first half of this year, I was fortunate enough to host an intern from the Australian National University's internship program. As part of the program, she investigated and reported on the former government's COVID-19 early release of superannuation policy. She found that the policy not only failed to account for the gender blind spots in Australia's superannuation system but compounded them.

The Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 found that the Liberal-National government ignored expert gender policy advice, including that from the Office for Women, when designing the COVID-19 early release of super policy. They also failed to properly consult super funds and peak financial bodies like APRA. APRA was made aware of the policy only four days before it was publicly announced and was asked to provide same-day advice to the Morrison government. The policy process was purposely truncated to avoid consultation with super funds and policy experts. It was a thought bubble made law. The super early release program meant poorer Australians, particularly working women with below-average super balances, were encouraged to mortgage their futures and access money earmarked for their retirements.

As my ANIP student's report detailed, the policy was irresponsible but was made worse by the Morrison government's other poorly thought out COVID-19 measures in respect of women, which, in the end, forced a reliance on early access to super. Australian women did not want to access their super as part of the COVID-19 early release program. In many cases they felt they had no other choice due to the profound lack of properly targeted government support. Because the policy was so poorly designed the outcome of the early super release program won't be fully known for some time. We don't know exactly how many people accessed this and how it was spent, but we know how compound interest works, so we can absolutely say that the policy means the capacity for today's young Australian women to retire with dignity has been significantly compromised.