Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

I do enjoy questions on superannuation and I am very pleased to receive questions on superannuation from the current opposition. But, before I get to the critical point that I was about to get to, I want to remind the Senate that it is a very serious issue, because contributions should have been lifted to 15 per cent—three per cent from the employee and three per cent from the employer. That was the Labor promise in 1995 and the then Liberal opposition, led by Mr Howard, promised to support the delivery of that. Of course, when they were elected in 1996, they refused, in the 1997 budget, to deliver on that particular promise, which they had actually signed up to. In terms of increasing the nine per cent superannuation guarantee, as I was about to say, I and the Treasurer on a number of occasions, including in the election campaign, indicated that we will not be increasing the nine per cent super guarantee.