Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition just spoke about present and future generations of retirees in Australia. Let me take a moment to talk about what retirement will look like for the next generation of Australians, to remove from this debate the political desperation and the populism that we just saw from the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition, to remove the misleading assumptions and the political cynicism in this debate and talk about a reality that our country faces, a reality that we all face. It does not matter whether you are a Labor politician or a Liberal politician.

The Productivity Commission tells us that, for every Australian that is not working today, there are about 7½ Australians working, supporting through the tax system the welfare entitlements of that person. The Productivity Commission says that our country is transitioning from a phase where we have 7½ people working for every person that is not to a phase where we have only 2½ Australians working for every Australian that is not in the workforce. That is an inevitable demographic challenge for our country. It is an undeniable demographic challenge for our country. It will put enormous strain on the next generation of Australians.

This is not anybody's fault. It is not a problem. It is a great thing that in a simple reality, after the war, lots of Australians had big families, and we had a huge population growth and that demographic bubble. But the reality is that when my generation are heading towards retirement—when the supposed future generation of Australians that the Leader of the Opposition was trying to talk about are heading towards retirement—we will have a very different system in this country because there just will not be as many people working to support the system that we have today. If we go through that transition—and this is not a Labor politician or a Liberal politician saying this—the Productivity Commission says that, simply to support that demographic transition, that demographic bubble, we would have to increase taxes on the next generation of Australians, my generation, and other generations yet to come by 21 per cent.

I do not think any Australian politician in their heart of hearts wants to say that, because of the cheap political populism that we saw from the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party in this chamber, because of their own political survival here today, so that politicians of this generation can keep sitting on this green leather on one side of the chamber or the other—because of those self-interested reasons—we are going to leave a country to the next generation of Australians that has less opportunity, where the next generation of Australians pay more tax and ultimately will have to support themselves far more than the current generation of Australians do.

If we are moving towards that system—and we have to, because it is just a demographic reality—there is one thing that will save the next generation of Australians in their retirement. The one thing about which we will be able to say to the next generation of Australians, 'We've left you with enough opportunity so that your retirement can be as good as that of the current generation of Australians,' is superannuation. It is superannuation that will save the next generation of Australians. They will be able to keep more of their own money in their own pockets to plan for their own retirement so that, when my generation hit retirement, we might have the possibility of having a similar retirement to that of the current generation.

In this debate about how we manage the retirement of Australians of all generations, the one thing we should not be attacking, the one thing we should not be changing the goalposts on, the one thing we should not be removing certainty around, is superannuation. It is the saving system for your own money for your own retirement. What is the only policy solution that the Labor Party have in the mix of all this cheap political populism that is focused on the next media cycle, not even really the next election? We know that the Labor Party were mulling over the legislation we have before us for quite some time before they announced their changes. When the political heat came back on the Labor Party because of other political issues of the day, they looked for a very quick political distraction, one that will cost our country dearly if they have their way. The only policy solution that they could then come up with in this mix of pathetic political populism was to raise taxes on superannuation—to raise taxes on your own money.

The Leader of the Opposition, at the dispatch box, just said that superannuation tax concessions are a gift from the taxpayer. Having a lower tax on superannuation is not a gift from the taxpayer; it is allowing you to keep more of your own money. It is not taking more of your own money away. So I do not understand the logic that the Labor Party have when they say they are some sort of fighters for equality and fairness in this country because they are going to take away a gift from the taxpayer. They just forget to tell you that that gift is actually just you keeping your own money. It does not matter whether you are somebody who is heading towards retirement in the next five or 10 years or in the next 50. Surely, as a value system—surely, as a common-sense approach to policy—we should say in this place that one thing that the government should do and aim to do is allow you to keep more of your own money. When the government take away your money and we give a bit of it back, we should not be calling that a gift from the government. You actually had to go to work for years, for decades, to accumulate that money. Not taking away the money that you worked incredibly hard for across the course of your lifetime is not a gift from the government.

In this debate, the one thing I would say is—and I think there are many members of the Labor opposition, particularly the shadow minister, who would in their heart of hearts say—that this is a very sensible policy solution that we have before us today. The reason I think that is that they took a very, very long time before they announced their position on this legislation. They only announced this cheap political populist measure and approach when they had some political heat on other political issues of the day—on border security and on unions—and they needed a political distraction.

The other reason I know in their heart of hearts the Labor Party does not believe this is because the new leader of the Greens, somebody who I think deserves a lot of respect for the decision he has made on this legislation, has shown more economic responsibility than the entire Labor opposition. For a Liberal politician to say that about a Green is an absolutely remarkable thing. For the leader of the Greens to understand that we have to have a fair and equitable retirement system, not just for this generation of Australians but for future generations of Australians, and for him to understand that while the modern Labor Party has just decided to give up on it is absolutely remarkable.

The reason we think this is a fair and equitable system is because, firstly, we are not attacking superannuation in the way the Labor Party would like to; we are keeping your own money in your pocket, so you can plan for your own retirement with your own money. We are not going to take your own money away from you. Secondly, we recognise that the pension system is a safety net for the most vulnerable people. That is ultimately what the pension stands for. When we go through the reality of what is happening with the pension in this legislation, we can see that this gives a boost to the most vulnerable pensioners in our country. The fact that the Labor Party is opposing a package of legislation that significantly increases pensions for the most vulnerable people is just absolutely bizarre and very strange.

Let's walk through the reality of this: since the election of the coalition government the age pension has already increased by $51.80 a fortnight for singles and $78 a fortnight for couples. The age pension will continue to rise twice a year by whatever is the highest available indexation rate. On top of these perpetual increases in this legislation—the legislation that the Labor Party is opposing in this House tonight—170,000 pensioners with modest assets will have another increase of $30 a fortnight. So, for 170,000 Australian pensioners with the most modest assets, there will be an increase on top of those perpetual increases of $30 a fortnight on average. And the Labor Party is opposing it! The Labor Party is opposing this legislation.

On top of these changes, when the Labor Party were in government they introduced the carbon tax, which increased electricity prices on the average household by about $550 a year. So the Labor Party said that, in order to compensate for that tax hit on Australians, they would increase pensions. To compensate for the carbon tax, they increased the pension by $361 a year for singles and $546 a year for couples—even though for the average household it was about $550 a year increase, but that was part of the compensation measures for the carbon tax.

When we came to government we removed the carbon tax. We removed that $550 a year hit on the average household but kept those pension increases. So, while people saw lower pressure on their electricity bills, they kept that $361 a year increase for singles and $546 a year for couples. So singles have had an increase or kept the carbon tax compensation of $361 for singles and $546 for couples. The age pension since we have been elected has gone up by another $51.80 for singles per fortnight and $78 a fortnight for couples. For 170,000 pensioners with modest assets there will be another $30 a fortnight increase under this legislation.

Yet, the Labor Party has opposed all of these measures. They opposed the repeal of the carbon tax. They are opposing legislation which would increase by $30 a fortnight the pension for 170,000 pensioners. And what was their policy solution? In response to all of these fair and equitable increases—so we can keep the pension as a safety net for the most vulnerable people—their policy solution is to increase taxes on your own money. Their policy solution is to increase taxes on superannuation.

As I begin my contribution tonight, for the next generation of Australians it is super that will save us. It is a great scheme that was set up—to give them full credit—by the Labor Party. It was a remarkable achievement in many ways to have a policy that looked decades into the future. Superannuation was set up understanding this demographic change that our country is going to. And, to fix this enormous black hole the Labor Party has in their costings, they will simply tax your own money more.

For the next generation of Australians, we are not going to have to have superannuation accounts like today; we are going to have to have a radically higher amount of superannuation than the current generation of retirees, because the pension system will not exist in its current form. It simply cannot exist in the its current form when there will be 2½ Australians working to support everyone who is not—when we have 7½ working today.

So I commend these bills to the House because they represent a fair and equitable approach to how we can support the most vulnerable people in our community and ensure that they have increases in their pensions. We will not do what the Labor Party is proposing to do, which is attack the superannuation of not only the current generation of retirees but of the next generation of Australians that will critically need their own money to secure their retirement. I commend these bills to the House.

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