Industry funds urge LNP to drop twice-rejected super for housing

Industry funds group Super Members Council (SMC) has praised the Federal Opposition for having been introduced the Your Future, Your Super performance test while in Government and has urged it to be supportive of a range of further super policy issues.

However, in doing so, the industry funds group noted that the Coalition’s super for housing policy had been twice rejected by the electorate and therefore should be dropped.

In a message welcoming the appointments of Ted O’Brien as Shadow Treasurer and Pat Conaghan as Shadow Assistant Treasurer, the SMC said it looked forward to working with them on superannuation policy.

“When last in Government, the Coalition introduced a performance test in super that has helped to keep investment returns high and fees low for super fund members. It also legislated so workers who earn less than $450-a-month would be guaranteed super,” the SMC said.

“In this term, we will seek clear commitments from the Coalition to the key principles that keep super strong for millions of Australians – universality, compulsion and preservation (which means super is kept for retirement and not withdrawn early for other purposes),” it said.

“We will also seek its support for crucial pieces of legislation we have advocated – such as payday super laws, lifting the Low-Income Super Tax Offset for 1.2 million people, and swift passage of financial advice reforms to help Australians to plan for retirement with more confidence.

“In previous commitments made to the Super Members Council, the Coalition parties had said: “The Coalition is strongly committed to the role of superannuation in our retirement system. It plays an important role in the economy and it’s critical to the lives of Australians.”

“SMC is also pushing to end age-based discrimination in super by axing an outdated law that excludes most under-18-year-old workers from being paid super from the first hour of their first job.

“SMC also urges the Coalition to now drop its twice-rejected past policy to withdraw super for house deposits, which countless respected economists say would just push up house prices, make Australians poorer in retirement and hand a bigger age pension bill to all taxpayers.”