Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino has hit back at One Nation’s policy on superannuation, saying it would be a “raid” on the future of Australians.
The One Nation superannuation proposal would allow people paying rent or a mortgage to receive one-quarter of their future compulsory super contributions in their take-home pay for up to three years.
The policy also proposes that the money would maintain the same low tax treatment as superannuation if people decided to take advantage of the measure.
Mulino said the last thing the government should be doing is forcing people struggling with the rising cost of living to raid their superannuation.
“One Nation resorting to this, and it’s not all that different to what the opposition’s been peddling, [due to] a fundamental philosophical opposition to super in all three of the parties on the right of Australian politics; they’re undermining super for short‑term political sugar hits,” he noted in an interview with News 24.
“We’ve got one of the best retirement income systems in the world and super is an absolutely core part of that, and a key element of super is that you contribute to it at a high level and then it’s preserved, and then you benefit from it for a dignified retirement.”
In contrast to allowing individuals to access their retirement savings to address cost-of-living pressures, he indicated the government would prefer to support people through increased wages and tax cuts.
To this end, he pointed out the Albanese government had implemented five tax cuts, cheaper medicines and increased bulk-billing rates to help people struggling with rising costs.
One Nation claimed the measure would translate to an additional income of around $2300 annually or $44 a week for a worker currently earning $90,500 a year.
Modelling by the Super Members Council, on the other hand, showed if somebody on the average income took their contribution down 3 percentage points from 12 per cent to 9 per cent for three years, they would be $25,000 worse off at retirement.
