There’s a new super idiot on the block and his name is Jim Chalmers, Labor’s treasury spokesman. Yesterday, Chalmers launched an extraordinarily deceitful attack on the Morrison Government, claiming it was seeking to “kill” compulsory super in Australia and “rob workers” by cancelling legislated increases in Australia’s superannuation guarantee to 12%. From the New Daily:
The Productivity Commission’s landmark 500-plus page report on Australia’s $2.6 trillion superannuation industry explicitly recommended abolishing compulsory life insurance for people aged under-25: Current settings are more a function of history than considered policy design. …many entrenched problems remain (and insurance accounts for over a third of member complaints against their fund)… Particularly for young
The Australian’s Adam Creighton has asked the question, noting that Australia’s superannuation system is now valued at $2.8 trillion, and yet parliament has failed to agree on what it is for. The current federal government tried a few years ago to enact a bill that would define the purpose of superannuation, but it was never
The New Daily is owned by Industry Super Holdings, so one should expect it to wholeheartedly support lifting Australia’s superannuation guarantee (compulsory superannuation) to 12%, given this would deliver its owners more funds under management to clip the ticket on. This helps to explain why Your Super Editor of the New Daily, Rod Myer, has
The Morrison Government is facing growing pressure from within its ranks to reconsider an increase in the superannuation guarantee from 9.5% to 12% by mid-2025. Andrew Hastie is among seven backbenchers who oppose the increase. Hastie says it would be preferable for people to use this income to pay off their mortgage now rather than
The cost of healthcare is under scrutiny in the wake of revelations that a growing number of Australians are seeking early access to their superannuation to pay medical expenses. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia raised concerns about this trend in February, warning that it demonstrates the need for government funding to the healthcare
Over the weekend, Labor’s shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, vigorously attacked Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for refusing to rule-out axing scheduled increases in Australia’s superannuation guarantee (compulsory super): Labor’s treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers warned on Sunday that the government should rule out any future rollback. “These weasel words from Josh Frydenberg are not good enough – especially
The rent-seeking boss of Australia’s largest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper’s Ian Silk, has urged policymakers to ignore the Grattan Institute’s “flawed and ideological” arguments for scrapping further increases to the superannuation guarantee to 12%. From The AFR: “Those discredited arguments are echoing now as the opponents of super try and lay the groundwork to oppose the
The superannuation guarantee is legislated to increase from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent between 2021 and 2025, and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has said that the federal government has no plans to change the legislated increase. However, a growing number of Liberal backbenchers are said to be against the increase, and are hopeful that
The Grattan Institute has slammed the legislated increase in the superannuation guarantee (compulsory superannuation) to 12%, claiming it would rob middle income earners of around $30,000 (1%) of lifetime earnings. From The AFR: “It’s hard to think of a policy less in the interests of working Australians than higher compulsory super contributions,” said Brendan Coates,
The 2017 Federal Budget included the below measure aimed at encouraging seniors to downsize from their large homes to free-up housing for Australian families: Yesterday, National Seniors Australia called for the scheme to be expanded to the Aged Pension: Ian Henschke, chief advocate of National Seniors Australia, suggests: “The strong take-up of this very conditional
Some revelatory news breaking over the last few weeks as listed wealth giant Evans Dixon comes under fire with some aggrieved clients choosing the AFR (here and here) as their messenger. The fact that coverage of the issue has yielded ten more complaints to the paper over the following weekend may indicate this is just
The Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Janet Hume, has given the strongest indication yet that the Coalition will scrap the legislated increase in the superannuation guarantee (compulsory super) to 12%, as well as make superannuation contributions voluntary for those aged under 25. From The SMH: Jane Hume urged warring industry and retail funds to “lay down
By Leith van Onselen The Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Janet Hume, says providing better outcomes for superannuation savers is her most important priority. With a rise in the superannuation guarantee from 9.5% to 12% having been legislated but not implemented, Hume says the federal government has a “moral obligation” to ensure that the super system
By Leith van Onselen Actuarial firm Rice Warner is the latest industry player to urge the federal government against any change to the proposed increase in the superannuation guarantee (compulsory superannuation) from 9.5% to 12%. In a paper to be presented to the Actuaries Institute’s annual summit, Rice Warner CEO Michael Rice and head of
By Leith van Onselen The Grattan Institute has previously argued against increasing the superannuation guarantee from 9.5% to 12%. It contends that the increase would cost workers $20 billion a year in forgone wages. However, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has penned an article claiming that Grattan’s modelling is flawed and that
By Leith van Onselen Maurice Blackburn claims 2.5 million AMP superannuation accounts have been charged too much in administration fees and has launched a class action against the wealth management firm, which follows a shareholder class action already underway , as well as legal action by ASIC. Lawyers believe the damages against AMP could be
By Leith van Onselen Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that industry superannuation funds recorded 13% growth in funds under management in the year to 31 March, compared with growth of 3.4% for retail funds. The industry funds sector now manages $677.5 billion on behalf of clients, while retail funds now manage $623
By Leith van Onselen We noted yesterday how Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has followed the Productivity Commission’s advice and called for a broad-based review of the retirement income system, including the interaction of superannuation, government pensions, and the tax system. Well, this has clearly angered the superannuation industry, which has already begun lobbying to stop the
By Leith van Onselen The Productivity Commission’s (PC) final report on the efficiency and competitiveness of Australia’s $2.8 billion superannuation system explicitly recommended “an independent public inquiry into the role of compulsory superannuation… in advance of any increase in the Superannuation Guarantee rate”: RECOMMENDATION 30: INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO THE RETIREMENT INCOMES SYSTEM The Australian Government should commission
By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s Judith Sloan has once again torn apart Australia’s compulsory superannuation system, describing it as a “national disaster”. Sloan claims compulsory super now only serves to benefit the superannuation industry, rather than its members, and is badly failing low-income earners or middle-income earners, whereas rich people do not need it.
I grew up a Keating child. By that I mean I was politicised in the Keating era. As such, I was strong fan of liberal economics with a social conscience and engagement with Asia. Keating’s flair and quick wit has always charmed as well. But, in recent, years I have found myself more and more
By Leith van Onselen The Grattan Institute has released startling analysis of both sides’ policy to increase compulsory super contributions to 12%, which it estimates will cost workers up to $20 billion a year in foregone wages once fully implemented in 2025-26, or close to 1% of GDP. Grattan also shows that the extra super
By Leith van Onselen Former Treasurer, Peter Costello, claims that Australia’s compulsory superannuation level of 9.5% will not generate anywhere near enough funds for retirement, even for workers that contribute for the entire of their working lives. From The ABC: Former treasurer Peter Costello says Australians will not have enough money to become self-funded retirees
By Leith van Onselen In 2005, former Treasurer Peter Costello implemented the mother of baby boomer bribes in the form of the “transition-to-retirement” (TTR) rules, which allowed those aged over 55 to legally minimise their tax by salary sacrificing up to $35,000 into a superannuation account and then simultaneously withdrawing the funds as income. In
By Leith van Onselen After Labor last week doubled down on lifting Australia’s superannuation guarantee (compulsory superannuation) to 12%, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) today has explicitly warned that such a move will necessarily lower wages: “The increase in the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent will likely lead to lower wage increases, shifting a
By Leith van Onselen Amid all its pontificating over Australia’s anaemic wages growth, Labor has committed to increasing the superannuation guarantee to 12% if it is elected at the upcoming federal election. From The New Daily: Federal shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told a banking and wealth summit in Melbourne on Tuesday that Labor was committed
By Leith van Onselen The Conversation’s Peter Martin has called for the Morrison Government to establish a warts-and-all inquiry into Australia’s compulsory superannuation system before the upcoming election, because the captured Labor Government is unlikely to do so: Facing overwhelming odds of defeat in the election due within weeks, one of its last throws of
By Leith van Onselen Labor’s plans to increase the superannuation guarantee to 12% is under pressure, following Treasury modelling showing the money being spent on the Age Pension pension is falling faster than had been predicted. The Age Pension cost 2.9% of GDP in 2002, and had been tipped to rise to 4.6% by 2042.
By Leith van Onselen The federal government drafted laws aimed at defining the objective of superannuation in 2016, but the bill has been put on hold indefinitely. Meanwhile, KPMG partner, Paul Howes, claims the super industry has not been able to introduce products that would help retirees to draw down on their savings in a
