The Federal Opposition has sought to use research commissioned by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to claim the Government's tinkering with superannuation has undermined confidence in the super system.
However the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, has interpreted the research results very differently and said it shows broad support for the super system, albeit many people continue to find it a difficult topic to understand.
The research, released by the ATO yesterday, said that while there was broad support for the super system as a savings vehicle for retirement, "many people continue to find super a difficult and confusing topic".
The research, undertaken by Colmar Brunton Social Research, said many people did not have sufficient financial literacy to participate in the system in an informed way.
However the Opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann, said that after more than four years of constant chopping and changing and increasing taxes on superannuation, the ATO research had found that 43 per cent of Australians did not have any interest in superannuation, and 69 per cent had no knowledge of the Government's latest proposed changes.
"Despite having been promised before the 2007 election that Labor would not change superannuation arrangements – not one jot not one tittle – Australians saving to achieve self-funded retirement have been forced to pay the price for Labor's fiscal mismanagement ever since," he said.
Cormann claimed a Coalition Government would consequently work with all stakeholders to ensure a more transparent and efficient system, and committed the Coalition to a range of policy initiatives including fixing the excess contributions regime.
