Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Deregulation, Competition Policy and Sustainable Cities) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak of behalf of many in the community in regard to the member for Wakefield’s motion before the parliament. It is a reminder of where we were before the election of the Howard government when then Prime Minister Keating used to run ads to try to convince people that superannuation funds grew on trees. It is that kind of shallow, poor, economic logic that is really at the heart of the concerns many have about this increase in the superannuation guarantee levy.

I, from my modest background in the community I represent, think superannuation is a good thing. It is a good thing particularly when it is a preparation for people’s retirement savings and when the people who are planning to retire actually have some say over it. At nine per cent, Australians are in a position to prepare for their retirement, and there is scope and opportunity to increase those contributions if that is a pathway they choose to go down.

What is interesting about the Rudd Labor government’s approach is that they say to working Australians, ‘No, we won’t give you that choice. We will compel this contribution,’ and then they run two quite contradictory, narrow-cast messages to the Australian public about just who is paying. You have some in this place wanting to say it is money coming from the mining tax—to quote the Prime Minister’s words, ‘wrong, wrong, wrong.’ Employer superannuation contributions come from employers. They make those contributions and are compelled to make those contributions. The Rudd Labor plan is to force them to increase those contributions by three per cent, which is effectively a three per cent payroll tax on all Australian employers that employ people for whom they have a superannuation guarantee liability.

The irony is that the Rudd Labor government and its hackneyed Labor members refuse to turn their minds to where these funds are coming from. You have—at times when it suits—the minister for finance and the Assistant Treasurer trying to make it sound like the government is stumping up the money when nothing could be more false. Nothing could be further from the truth. You then have them talking to a business audience saying, ‘It will be a trade-off for wages and salaries.’ Then when they go out and talk to working people it is, ‘No, no, it’ll be paid for by the employer.’ These narrow-cast, dishonest and completely incoherent messages that the Rudd Labor government puts out underline the fact that they have no policy credentials whatsoever on superannuation.

The Rudd Labor government must have understood that this was important. Why else would it have sent out shadow ministers prior to the last election? In a joint press release on 5 November 2007 Nick Sherry and Wayne Swan, who were so emphatic about the need to reassure employers at a difficult economic time that they were not going to cop another three per cent payroll tax, said: ‘Labor has made it clear on many occasions that it will not be increasing employers’ nine per cent superannuation guarantee payments.’ Well what was the shelf life of that promise? It is another broken promise; the undertaking on 5 November 2007 has not lasted to this day.

Then there were the Prime Minister’s famous words when the concern of the Australian public was that the Rudd Labor team would mess with superannuation. He sought to reassure people. Remember that famous quote about superannuation changes? ‘No, no, no. Not one jot, not one tittle.’ This shows you the completely bereft nature of this Rudd Labor team in terms of consistent and coherent policy development. They cannot fess up and face the fact about who is paying. This is not money that grows on trees, as the Labor Party would have you believe. It is either coming out of the wages and salaries of employees or it is being paid for by employers. It cannot be anyone else; it is one of those two. If it is coming out of the wages and salaries of employees, then the Rudd Labor government needs to fess up to that fact and confront that simple truth that, at a time of increased cost of living—

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