Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor governments are reforming governments, grappling with the major challenges facing our nation. Australia's ageing population is one of the major forces that will shape our economy and our society in the coming decades.

Ensuring that Australians retire with dignity and continue to live meaningful and fulfilling lives in retirement sits at the heart of the Labor Party's commitment to superannuation. It's a commitment to Australians in retirement. Prior to the superannuation guarantee, Australia's retirement system was patchy, inconsistent and inequitable. The age pension was too low and the defined benefit schemes that did exist were largely the province of white-collar workers, were usually paid at the discretion of the employer and were not transferrable between jobs.

Arguing the case for the superannuation guarantee in 1991, the great Paul Keating said that for retirees it would be 'the difference between a full, active life and a life governed by budgetary exigencies and the vagaries of politics'. Since the introduction of the superannuation guarantee in 1992, the superannuation and retirement savings of Australian workers have grown, with trillions of dollars now under management, particularly in APRA regulated funds.

Across the OECD, government expenditure on public pensions averages around nine per cent and is projected to increase on average. Australia, meanwhile, spends around 2.3 per cent of GDP on pensions and is the only OECD country where this is projected to decrease in the future. As a result, Australia's superannuation guarantee remains one of the boldest and most transformative pieces of economic architecture, not only in our nation's history but around the world.

There is more work to do. The reforms to the superannuation system implemented by the Albanese government seek to address some of the areas that require improvement or change. The workforce of today is very different from the workforce of the early 1990s: workers are more diverse, flexible and mobile. As a result, more employees have been falling through the gaps and missing out on their superannuation entitlements. During the 2022-23 financial year, the Australian Taxation Office estimated that $6.25 billion of super, owed to employees in Australia, was either not paid on time or not paid at all. Unpaid or delayed superannuation payments prevent the compounding growth of retirement savings and can cost Australian workers significantly through their career and reduce the lump sums they retire with significantly, as well. Women are among the worst affected by unpaid super issues, particularly women in low-paid industries.

The Albanese government's Payday Super reform, which takes effect in July this year, addresses this head on. Employers will be required to pay superannuation within seven days of payday, bringing contributions into line with wage cycles. This ensures that workers' savings begin growing sooner and improves compliance, as employers failing to make appropriate contributions can be identified sooner and the issue can be corrected. Equally significant is the reform to make super payable on paid parental leave. Career breaks, predominantly affecting women, compound the gap in retirement savings between men and women in Australia. Extending super to paid parental leave helps to reduce this gap and recognises that the decision of parents to take time out of the workforce to raise children should not mean sacrificing their financial security later in life.

Australia's superannuation system remains world leading because it has evolved over time. It was a Labor government that put it into place and it is a new Labor government that continues to improve this system. There are aspects that still require improvement: for women, for the young, for people who don't own their own homes. And we need to pursue some of the fiscal benefits that motivated the creation of the system but have not yet been fully realised.

The Liberals, by contrast, have done just about everything they can to undermine the superannuation guarantee and the superannuation system in this country, opposing the introduction of the guarantee when they were in government and delaying scheduled increases in the superannuation guarantee along the journey. They have unjustly attacked industry superannuation funds to satisfy extreme and ideological predilections. At the last election, they had a platform encouraging young Australians, yet again, to draw down on their super to pay for a housing deposit. Those are the types of policies that would make Australians worse off in the long term. That is not the Labor way. Labor's way is one of imagination, vision and values. (Time expired)