Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently released figures show that in the 2005 financial year 5,800 employees in the Macquarie electorate benefited from the government’s superannuation co-contribution scheme. Nationwide, the figures are astounding: 1,162,730 employees took advantage of this scheme—669,000 of them being women. In total they received over $934 million in co-contribution payments from the Australian government. This is an excellent government initiative providing a great boost to the superannuation savings of low-income earners. For employees earning up to $28,000 a year, contributions up to $1,000 from post-tax income are matched by a greater contribution by the government—in fact contributions of $1.50 per $1 contributed by the employee, phasing out between $28,000 and $58,000. This is a massive tax-free injection by the government to the savings of low-income earners.

From July 2007 this benefit will also be available for the self-employed. When you add to this initiative the suite of measures announced in this year’s budget to effectively remove the tax on superannuation benefits for most employees, you have a very serious commitment to boosting superannuation savings in this country—in fact a far greater commitment than we have seen by any government previously. While the opposition equivocates and procrastinates, the Howard government is delivering on superannuation. (Time expired)