Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We'll try and get through this as soon as possible. It's been a long night for all members. The opposition will agree to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Superannuation Outcomes For Australians and Helping Australian Businesses Invest) Bill 2021. It makes a number of important changes relating to how our superannuation system works in the interests of all Australians. The central piece of this bill is one which is Labor Party policy, something we took to the last election. It'll amend the Superannuation Guarantee Administration Act to remove the minimum monthly earning threshold of $450 for wages or salary to count towards the superannuation guarantee levy.

Schedule 2 concerns the First Home Super Saver Scheme and will amend Taxation Administration Act to raise the maximum releasable amount of voluntary super contributions that can be put forward towards the scheme from $30,000 to $50,000—an entirely sensible move, given house price inflation over the last two years.

Schedule 3 amends the Income Tax Assessment Act to reduce the age of eligibility from 65 to 60 at which Australian taxpayers can make downsizer contributions to their superannuation from the proceeds of selling homes. Again, it's a sensible move that creates mobility within the housing market and enables people to downsize and contribute surplus funds towards their superannuation savings, freeing up that cash for retirement income purposes.

Schedule 4 amends the same act to apply a work test to individuals aged between 67 and 75 who claim a deduction for personal superannuation contributions. Again, that's not controversial from our point of view. Schedule 5 amends the act to allow trustees of super funds to choose a method of calculating exempt pension income when they have both an accumulation phase and a retirement phase membership—something we're going to see a lot more of over the coming years as fund values increase and people transition to retirement. Again, that's a matter that we concur with the government on. Finally, schedule 6 will amend the Income Tax (Transitional Provisions) Act to extend the temporary full expensing regime by 12 months to 30 June this year.

I want to take the rare opportunity in a chamber which is usually full of rancour to congratulate the senator from Victoria, Senator Hume, who has personally worked hard to ensure that what was Labor Party policy is now government policy and soon to be law in relation to the $450 threshold. It's an incredibly important issue, particularly for women and gig workers or workers who have multiple jobs, none of whom would earn, individually, $450 a month. This will benefit low-paid workers, and it has widespread support across the business community and the union movement. I thank the unions who have been involved in the campaign. It's a particularly important issue for retail workers, hospitality industry workers and gig workers. It's a sensible move.

I won't detain the House anymore. We've all been here a long time. Let's not waste too much time in agreeing.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join in speaking in favour of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Superannuation Outcomes For Australians and Helping Australian Businesses Invest) Bill 2021. I won't use anything like the time that's been allocated. This legislation and now this policy—going from being a partisan policy to something that is supported by the government and the opposition—will change people's lives in retirement and change them fundamentally. In particular, it will change what it means to go into retirement for working women.

For a long time now, there has been a rule where, if you earn less than $450 in a calendar month, the employer pays no superannuation. As we've moved to a situation with more people in insecure work—particularly people working multiple jobs—we've ended up with a situation where you have a significant number of people who in fact do earn more than $450 a month but earn it across a number of workplaces, and, month by month, they end up receiving no superannuation. We end up with people with wildly fluctuating hours, where in some months they do get superannuation and in some months they don't. This is particularly significant for the workers who I used to represent, in a different job, in retail. I would see endless situations not only of people missing out on superannuation but of rostering being deliberately done in a way that you could save 10 per cent on your wages budget if you could keep the workers earning below $450 a month. That incentive was never the intention of this policy. This policy was back in the days when superannuation was all filled out by hand. It wasn't automated. That was to try to minimise the paperwork. That's where this originally came from.

Now that we're in an automated system across payrolls, there is no justification, and the outcome has been horrific. According to the ACTU, 'The threshold currently denies low-paid working women $59 million in super contributions every year.' The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia estimates the change will benefit more than 300,000 lower income workers, with something like 63 per cent of them being women. A large number of these workers during that period last year when you could access your super but JobKeeper had not yet been established used their super because they had no other choice when they needed to get by, and reduced their superannuation accounts to zero. We have a large number of Australians who have less super now than they had years ago. At that time, around three million people took around $36 billion out of their superannuation accounts. Throughout the life of the scheme, according to Industry Super Australia, a total of 725,000 people effectively drained their superannuation accounts, leaving them with less money of their own in their retirement and potentially a greater cost to the taxpayer in future years. It will be a huge example of intergenerational theft.

This measure provides a way through which will make a real difference. It deals with one of the consequences of the chronic problems we have with insecure work and multiple jobs within Australia. In commending the bill to the House, I would also urge the government, as there are not many days left in the Senate, to please schedule this in government business and get it through so the money starts getting into people's superannuation accounts.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.