The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has defended its estimates of what the Government’s hardship early access to superannuation will ultimately cost fund members in the face of suggestions by the Liberal Party chairman of a Parliamentary Committee that the ACTU data should be investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
What is more, the ACTU has accused the Government of forcing people to access their superannuation to help save the Budget bottom line at the same time as suggesting the chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Senator James Paterson and other members of the Government back-bench of being philosophically opposed to Australia’s superannuation regime.
In doing so, ACTU assistant secretary, Scott Connolly said that no one should have to access their superannuation to pay bills or rent.
“This scheme shows that the Morrison Government has not done enough to support working people and has instead decided to force people to sacrifice their retirements to save the budget bottom line,” he said. “This scheme is having a disastrous impact on the retirement savings of women and young people, but is being used as a tax minimisation tool by the wealthy.”
Connolly said 2.5 million workers had raided their super to pay the bills “because the Morrison Government has not done enough to support them during this crisis”.
“Almost 500,000 have emptied their accounts,” he said. “A 25-30 year old who withdraws $20,000 over these two years will be $79,000 – $95,000 worse off by retirement.”
This figure was later questioned by Senator Paterson and referred to ASIC.
