Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw that. It is always a pleasure to follow the member for Bendigo. She is a former industrial advocate, of course, and she just proved why it is that United Voice took the decision to plant her in this place. As the industrial advocate, she must not have been all that successful, because she just said to the House that superannuation is wages that have been deferred, and that is a decision taken by the employee. She might want to check the definition of 'compulsory'. Joe Bullock knows what compulsory means. He got a bullet to the head, and he got it last night.

She might also want to check about the Fair Entitlements Guarantee. She spoke about workers missing out on their superannuation when companies or individuals go into liquidation. That is why we have the Fair Entitlements Guarantee.

Finally, she said people cannot get hauled in front of the Fair Work Commission for failing to pay their superannuation. Of course they can. Newsflash for the member for Bendigo: it is an offence for an employer not to pay the compulsory—you heard it again: compulsory—superannuation contribution. But that is enough about the member for Bendigo. I do not know what I have done, but I seem to follow her every time in this place, and I suppose I will keep doing that for some time going forward.

Enough of the negative. Enough of the not-so-scary scare campaigns that seem to be the order of the day in this place. I want to talk about how we are strengthening superannuation. There are a couple of ways you can go about strengthening superannuation, but the principal one is that you can get more people into jobs, because people going into jobs means people receiving—guess what?—superannuation. There are 421,400 people in this nation who have achieved a job since we came to government. That is 421,400 people who are now receiving superannuation payments who formerly were not. I think that is a pretty strong indication of how one goes about strengthening the system.

The other way that you can strengthen the system is that you can encourage people to make voluntary contributions. Note to the member for Bendigo: voluntary not compulsory. One way that you can do that is that you can keep the rules around superannuation and particularly the way we tax superannuation consistent. If you do not do that, you discourage people from using superannuation as a vehicle to save and invest for their future.

What did Labor do on this? You heard from the member for Deakin earlier: 13 changes to super rules, pocketing $9 billion of extra revenue. Nine billion dollars—that is more money than you can fly a rocket over. It has the effect of discouraging people from investing in superannuation.

What are Labor proposing at the forthcoming election? It caused me to go to their website, which is a pain in and of itself. But I did that and I printed off Labor's fairer super plan. And—surprise, surprise—it is a plan for increasing taxes. They really are a one-trick pony. The only tool in their fiscal toolbox is ratchetting up taxes on the economy. Of course they have got form. Today they are also talking about changing the negative gearing rules—increasing taxes for those attempting to negatively gear. Some will say, 'It is not an increase in tax; it is just taking away a deduction,' but, of course, it is an increase in tax. Not happy with that, Labor are also looking at increasing capital gains taxes. I go back to what I said—they have only one tool in their fiscal toolbox, and that is to ratchet up taxes on Australians.

Note to those opposite—the member for Bendigo and others: you cannot tax your way to prosperity. Do you know what you also cannot do? You cannot legislate your way to prosperity. What we need to do is take the red tape away, reduce taxes and allow the economy to grow because a strong economy means a stronger superannuation system. I think we both agree that that is a good thing—a strong economy and a stronger superannuation system.

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