Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

First of all, I didn't describe it the way that the honourable member has said. That's the first point. The second point is that, when we announced the policy, the expectation was that about half a per cent of people in the superannuation system would be impacted by what is a very modest change in terms of the impact on individuals, but it would make a meaningful contribution to making the superannuation system more sustainable. That remains our view. It's about half a per cent of people, and that obviously varies from fund to fund. If you think about the fund that was in the paper today—their expectation at Hostplus is that 57 members out of 1.86 million members would be impacted by the modest changes that we are proposing.

As the Assistant Treasurer said a moment ago, we are the big believers in superannuation. We're about strengthening superannuation, and those opposite are about weakening superannuation. For evidence of that, Mr Speaker, think about the fact that, on 1 July this year, we completed the journey to 12 per cent compulsory superannuation. That's something we're very proud of on this side of the House. So too are we proud to be paying the superannuation guarantee on government paid parental leave for the first time ever. I shout out to the minister here for the work that we did on that in the last term of parliament.

Part of our responsibility to the superannuation system is to make sure that it is treated in a concessional way, that those concessions are generous and that they are also sustainable. After these changes are implemented, there will still be generous tax concessions for everyone in the superannuation system, but, for the half a per cent of people with balances of more than $3 million—remembering that the average retirement balance is about $340,000—

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