Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean.
The advertising warns the federal government may introduce policies that will see the average couple lose $170,000 in retirement savings and force them to “sell your family home to fund your retirement” if the legislated superannuation guarantee rise from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent by 2025 is scrapped. The first rise is due in July.
The Morrison government has pointed out the increases will come at the expense of wages growth at a time when workers and businesses can ill afford to have less money,but has not said whether the increase will be scrapped. Labor,the unions and the superannuation funds say workers need the higher rate for an adequate retirement but the rise has been criticised by the Grattan Institute and the Reserve Bank.
The Industry Super marketing will tell also users of popular video and social media services like Facebook,Instagram and Google’s YouTube that dumping the superannuation guarantee rise adds $33 billion to the cost of the aged pension by 2058 and risks leaving a 30-year-old couple $120,000 worse off in retirement. Treasury’s Retirement Income Review found the federal budget would benefit from stopping the legislated rise due to the extra funds gained in higher income tax rates compared to lower superannuation tax rates.
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The advertising marks an aggressive turning point from the super funds,which have been increasingly concerned by the lobbying of a growing group of backbenchers against the super guarantee increase and revelations policymakers are consideringmaking a portion of superannuation “opt-in”.
Coalition MPs are a major target of the campaign,which will directly criticise federal politicians for taking a “rolled gold taxpayer-funded” 15.4 per cent in superannuation while opposing a rise for the general public.
Victorian MP Tim Wilson’s ‘Home First Super Second’ campaign,which aims to let first-home buyers access their funds for a housing deposit before being required to save it as superannuation,is also in the line of fire. Industry Super’s message to the public will be that policies of this nature drive prices up,force young Australians to choose between buying a home or financial security in retirement,and only benefit banks and investors.