The Federal Assistant Treasurer, Stuart Robert, has reiterated the Coalition’s commitment to superannuation reform, in a statement that was as much a hit against the Labor party as election fever heats up as a reinforcement of his Government’s stance on the issue.
Stuart said that the Coalition, which had been criticised by parts of the industry for its piecemeal approach to super reform, had been “leading the charge to enhance Australia’s super system” while Labor “directly lobbied” against it and proposed amendments to “undermine the intent and effectiveness of protections for workers”.
Stuart’s comments were in response to the Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Clare O’Neil, calling for super reforms to help protect members in an address to the Superannuation Chair Forum on Wednesday.
“Despite Ms O’Neil saying ‘a Shorten Labor Government will not stand by while millions of Australian have their savings eaten up by … fee gouging’ the Labor Party have previously refused to support the Government’s reforms,” Stuart said.
“Now that Labor has finally admitted Australians need superannuation reforms, I call on Bill Shorten and the Labor party to walk the talk and support the Government’s reforms that would save millions of Australians from billions of dollars being eroded from their retirement savings.”
The Assistant Treasurer said that the Government’s Protecting Your Super package protected consumers with low balance accounts and those who were exiting accounts or didn’t want insurance. He said that its Member Outcomes No. 1 legislation strengthened trustee responsibilities and Member Outcomes No. 2 provided more Australians choice of fund and helped protect salary sacrificing workers.
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