Key Coalition MPs want to slash minimum superannuation from 12% to just 9% if returned to federal government.
The average 30-year-old worker would lose $165,000 in retirement under the plan spruiked by Alex Antic, Matt Canavan and Llew O’Brien, according to modelling by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
The ACTU said the plan emphasised how far the Coalition is willing to go to undermine the hard-won entitlements of Australian workers.
In a Sydney University speech in October last year, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor revealed the Coalition’s radical superannuation ambitions, including “aligning superannuation with other global retirement schemes – like [the United States of America’s] 401k.”
Australia’s superannuation system is consistently ranked one of the best in the world and allows Australians to retire with significantly more income than the US system provides.
Protecting super is essential
IEU-QNT Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Rebecca Sisson said ordinary working people understood the importance of superannuation and would be most impacted by the Coalition plan.
“Superannuation was borne from union members who shared a vision where all workers could retire comfortably,” Rebecca said.
“Attacks on super from the Coalition – whether it be their policy on using superannuation to fund housing deposits in an already overheated housing market or this new plan to drastically reduce workers’ super in every pay packet – are shameful.
“Unions built superannuation and we are ready to defend it.
“Superannuation is a workplace right, not a football for politicians who happily receive 15.4% of taxpayer-funded superannuation for their own retirements.
“All Australian workers deserve the dignity of a comfortable retirement,” she said.
