Democrats likely to oppose choice

The FederalGovernment is expected to meet stiff opposition over its plans to place its choice of superannuation fund policy firmly back on the political agenda.

The Government used last week’s budget to commit $28.7 million over four years to theAustralian Taxation Officefor an education campaign on the choice proposals.

The announcement came on top of an earlier decision by the Government to re-introduce the choice-of-fund legislation for consideration in the winter sitting of parliament.

But the Democrat’s spokesperson on super, Senator Lyn Allison, says the choice of fund policy would be once again blocked by the Democrats in the Senate if the Government also refused to give same-sex couples equal rights under super laws.

Before last year’s election, the Democrats rejected the Government’s choice proposals in the Senate because of the same-sex issue.

“We’ve had no progress from the Government on ... discrimination against same-sex couples [being] resolved by legislation. [Without this], we are not interested in supporting choice of fund,” she says.

Allison has also pledged to vote against the Government’s proposals to reduce the rate of the superannuation surcharge from 15 to 10.5 per cent, a proposal initially announced at the last election and confirmed in last week’s budget.

Allison says the problem with the surcharge is its administrative complexity for superannuation funds, not that it is too high a rate.

As of last week, there was no indication whether Labor would support the Democrat’s move.