Coalition rejects Shorten’s 12 per cent claim
The Federal Government believes it has trapped the Federal Opposition into confirming it would scrap increasing the superannuation guarantee from nine per cent to 12 per cent, but the Coalition has rejected the claim.
The Minister for Financial Services, Bill Shorten, has pointed to comments by the Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey that the Coalition would not be in the business of funding measures based on increasing Government debt.
Hockey pointed out that a range of measures was intended to be funded by the Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) and said that on the basis of the poor returns from the tax, this was now "borrowed money".
"The Government is committing expenditure and we cannot pay for it any more," he said.
Shorten claimed this meant the Coalition could not be trusted with superannuation, but the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, said the minister needed to "stop hyper-ventilating".
"We have been clearly on the record for some time now that we won't be rescinding the legislated increase in the super guarantee from 9 to 12 percent," he said. "We stand by that commitment.
"A Coalition government will not make any negative unexpected changes to superannuation. We need to restore confidence in superannuation as the retirement savings vehicle of choice," Cormann said.
"Australians doing the right thing by saving for their retirement deserve stability and certainty in superannuation arrangements so they can plan their future retirement with confidence."
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Staff Writer
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