Opposition leader Kim Beazley has indicated that superannuation is on the agenda as a frontline issue for next year’s federal election.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley has indicated that superannuation is on the agenda as a frontline issue for next year’s federal election.
Beazley told ABC Radio this morning that he believed superannuation could be expanded into other policy areas, hinting a link to health insurance.
“We are looking at it to see if the things that are done with superannuation can not be expanded to incorporate other social objectives,” he said.
“We have not arrived at conclusions on that. We’ll certainly have something out on this in plenty of time for the poll. We are big believers.”
Beazley said the key issue was to add value to superannuation, which he said had been run down by the government.
“It’s the only effective means of compulsory saving we have ever managed to devise in Australia, he said.
“It has been undermined systematically by this government. You could have knocked me over with a feather when (Treasurer) Peter Costello came out the other day saying that the next great challenge for him was to do something about superannuation.
“The next great challenge for him is to repair the wreckage he put in place in adding to the com-plexity of superannuation.”
“Our concern is that superannuation should become a first class benefit for people upon retire-ment. If it doesn’t, we will not be able to cope with the effects of our ageing population. So it is front and centre a major policy area.”
