Out of touch MPs shoving workers towards poverty in retirement
A SMALL band of Coalition MPs want to slash up to $200,0002 from the savings of Australian families.
Using the Coronavirus caused-downturn as cover, the backbench MPs, have called for the legislated super rate increase to be scrapped or frozen – a move which would see a couple on average wages lose between $150,000 to $200,000.
More than 170,000, mostly, young Australians accessing their super early through the emergency early release scheme, have wiped out their savings. The only way to now avoid the long-term legacy of this downturn being a generation of Australians who have lost their savings and are forced onto the pension, is to stick to the already legislated super rate increase.
The short-sighted hit on super would mean more Australians would be left languishing on the pension, a bill we would all pay through higher taxes.
The backbenchers move to cut the increase is out of touch with two thirds of Australians who a UMR poll found backed a steady increase to the super rate. And they are out of step with their PM, the Treasurer and Assistant Minister for Superannuation who have already publicly quashed their ideologically driven plans to cut Australian workers retirement savings.
The MPs, who themselves receive more than 15 per cent super, say that 9.5 per cent is enough for the average Australian to fund a dignified retirement.
They use the specious argument that an increase comes at the expense of wages, despite recent historic evidence showing there is no equal drop in wages when the super guarantee increases.
It was the same argument used to freeze the Super Guarantee in 2014, but wages have mostly flatlined since then – underlining the falseness of their arguments.
The claim that because Australia is entering a recession that the Super Guarantee rate must be cut, doesn’t hold water either, as there is evidence that following the 1991 recession the rebound in economic growth and employment coincided with an incremental but steady increase in the SG – like what is planned now.
