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

including the matter the shadow minister has raised. As I mentioned yesterday, the Australian Labor Party when in government until 1996 had a proud record with respect to introduction of superannuation in this country. The former Labor government under Mr Hawke and Mr Keating introduced compulsory superannuation, with the initial contribution level at some three per cent back in 1987. That was done for good reason. Up until that time, the retirement income system had a significant element of unfairness. Those who had superannuation over and above the age pension were obviously more advantaged in terms of retirement income than those who did not have superannuation. So the then Labor government took the very long-term and very important economic and social policy decision to introduce compulsory superannuation, initially at three per cent. It is often forgotten that that first three per cent, which is now part of the nine per cent superannuation guarantee, was a direct wages trade-off with employees through the then centralised wage bargaining system. That is often forgotten in the context of this debate.

I do not forget that the then Liberal opposition vehemently opposed the introduction of compulsory superannuation in Australia. The then Labor government saw this as a very important fairness measure to ensure that low- and middle-income earners, workers in retail, hospitality and trucking, did have some extra superannuation to provide additional retirement income. The far-sighted Labor government, under the leadership—