Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the father of two young children, one of whom is very much looking forward to her first part-time job, I spend a lot of time thinking about them and their future and how we can best set them and their mates up for success. One of the best ways that we can set every Australian up is the through-life financial security that superannuation provides. This is a great Hawke-Keating era Labor reform that created a world-leading superannuation system and set every Australian up for a dignified retirement.

Labor—those on this side—aims to ensure that all workers, regardless of how they are engaged, can accumulate super on every dollar earned. At the moment, to get super, under-18s need to work at least 30 hours a week, and this means that super isn't being paid on every dollar earned or every hour worked. This disproportionately affects younger Australians, who miss out on time when the value of those dollars could have been compounding. Running some numbers shows that this can make a real difference. For example, for a 16-year-old, investing a dollar in superannuation means that at retirement that dollar would be worth around 17 per cent more than a dollar invested at 18, purely due to that time compounding. So thanks to all working on this campaign. Let's set our kids up for a dignified retirement.