Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

As I say, it is ironic that the two parties who've done most to oppose superannuation ever since it was introduced, by a Labor government, 20 or 30 years ago are now the parties who want to hold themselves up as those who want to defend the rights of people with superannuation. How absolutely laughable! Having spent the last 30 years doing everything they possibly can to oppose superannuation, they now say they want to protect the superannuation rights of Australians, but only those with balances of over $3 million. So they've actually never cared about average working Australians and their superannuation. Let's remember this: when it took for a Labor government to introduce superannuation, what did the Liberal and National parties do? They opposed it. While a Labor government has repeatedly sought to increase superannuation contributions so that average working people can have a dignified retirement, what have the Liberal and National parties done? They've opposed those increases in contributions. They have never once supported superannuation for the average working person in Australia.

They've invented all sorts of different schemes that have enabled or forced working people to raid their superannuation to deprive themselves of a dignified retirement. But today we see this road-to-Damascus conversion from the Liberal and National parties, saying that they want to defend the rights of Australians to have their superannuation preserved—but only if you've got a balance above $3 million! That's only if you're fortunate enough to be in the less than half a percentage of Australians who have a superannuation balance above $3 million. If you're an average working person with an average balance of around $267,000, the Liberal and National parties don't care about you. They'll vote to let you raid your superannuation and deprive yourself of a dignified retirement. They'll vote to block every possible increase in contributions towards superannuation, but, if you're fortunate enough to be in the less than 0.5 per cent of Australians with a superannuation balance of more than $3 million, then the Liberal and National parties are for you.

That says all you need to know about the Liberal and National parties. We see this play out in every single policy area we ever debate in this parliament. If it's about superannuation and if you're an average working Australian, they're against it. If you're a very, very, very, very wealthy Australian with a superannuation balance above $3 million, then the Liberal and National parties are in your corner when it comes to superannuation. That's just as we've seen over and over again throughout this term of the Albanese government when we've changed workplace laws to benefit average working Australians. Every step we've taken to support working Australians to get pay rises has been opposed by the Liberal and National parties. Every step we've taken to ensure more secure jobs for working Australians, promoted by the Albanese Labor government, has been voted against by the Liberal and National parties. When we proposed same job, same pay laws and pay rises for average working people, you could always count on the Liberal and National parties to be voting against it, just as they did when they were in government and just as they have promised to do if they win the next election. For those privileged few with superannuation balances of over $3 million, the Liberals and Nationals are in your corner, fighting for you.

Now, I am a very well-paid individual, as is every person in this parliament. But, even with the very large amount that I earn and the relatively large superannuation balance that I enjoy, I do not have a balance anywhere near $3 million. That puts into some perspective the kinds of people that the Liberal and National parties are in to bat for here, even the highly paid politicians working in this parliament don't have superannuation balances above $3 million. There might be a handful because of former business wealth that they've developed, but even highly paid politicians in this parliament don't have superannuation balances of more than $3 million. That's who the Liberal and National parties are going in to bat for today, just as they've done on wages, job security and every other policy matter that we've discussed over this term of parliament, and they're in there doing it again today.