Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The reality is that we've been up-front about the challenges we've inherited. We've been left with a trillion dollars of debt, with little to show for it. We've seen aged care in crisis and a decade of neglect in Medicare. So, we've got to make tough decisions. People in Australia are making tough decisions around their kitchen table, so we, as a responsible government, have to make tough and responsible decisions around the cabinet table. Back in 2016 the member for Hume talked about tough decisions when he said:

Well, it's very simple. We need a fairer superannuation system which has integrity, and this means that those of us who can afford to pay, should be paying our fair share.

The situation we had was that some people were contributing millions of dollars into super, and it's totally inappropriate that someone who has contributed millions and millions of dollars continues to get a 15 per cent concession.

Who said that? That was the member for Hume, in 2016—the current member for Hume, the shadow Treasurer

We are not just talking about it; we are looking at curbing tax breaks for those with over $3 million in super, a very small, modest change—30 per cent on earnings over $3 million instead of 15 per cent. It is still a tax break, but it is not the 15 per cent; it is 30 per cent. And it affects a very small number of people and doesn't take effect until 2025. It will affect fewer than 0.5 per cent of Australians, those who have super balances of over $3 million; 99.5 per cent of people in Australia will see no changes to their super.

In contrast, those opposite froze the SGC three times: in 2014, in 2020 and in 2021. And millions of Australians lost millions of dollars in super and will be poorer in retirement as a result of it. It wasn't 0.5 per cent who were affected by the SGC freeze; it was millions of Australians. I have seen myself, personally, many, many members of my former union who are going to live in poverty in retirement because those opposite froze the SGC. It was modest amounts of money but big money for those people who were affected.

That is what you did to those in retirement. What we are proposing is a modest change. It is responsible. It's modest. And it's to keep super strong and fair. Super was designed to make sure working people have security and dignity in retirement. Your freeze of the SGC didn't deliver that in any way, shape or form. It is condemning people to poverty in retirement, because you froze it three times: 2014, 2020 and 2021. Women were badly affected by this, and it is on your shoulders. So, to hear what I've heard in the last few days about this very modest proposal that is going to affect those who have $3 million balances in super is incredibly hard to take.

But then, what else would we expect from the people who bought us robodebt? Again, watching that royal commission and seeing what has happened to the poorest people in our society—Alan Tudge saying, 'We will find you, we'll track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison.' That is your legacy. That is what you did. We are proposing a very modest change that is going to affect only a small number of people. And let's be clear: there were more people at the Ed Sheeran concert in Melbourne last weekend than are affected by these changes! That's the thing you should think about. Yet you froze the SGC three times. Millions of Australians lost money, and they're going to be in poverty in retirement because of what you did. We forget about that—absolutely forget about that.

Again, we've heard the member for Fadden admit to the royal commission that he lied about robodebt because loyalty to his colleagues mattered more, not loyalty to the people of Australia. What a perfect summary of this entire time in government that you had loyalty to yourselves and not to the Australian people!