Super needs political support, not short term tinkering
The SMSF Association (formerly SPAA) has called on both sides of politics to commit themselves to overarching goals for superannuation and to avoid tinkering with superannuation for short-term fiscal goals.
In its Budget Submission the SMSF Association stated that superannuation policy needed to be recommitted to the three pillar retirement income model developed in the early 1990s at the time of the introduction of the superannuation guarantee.
These pillars — to provide retirement incomes for all Australians, to build an investment pool of assets for Australia and to relieve the pressure on the Australian age pension — needed to be supported by the overarching goal for superannuation and framed with policy principles to guide policy changes in the superannuation sector.
The submission claimed this goal would "give the superannuation industry and consumers a baseline on which it can evaluate policy changes on" with the SMSF Association suggesting this goal be developed in consultation with the superannuation industry and members of superannuation funds, including SMSF trustees and members.
The SMSF Association also repeated it calls for current general concessional contribution caps to be lifted from $30,000 to $35,000 stating it was excessively low.
The association stated the current limit penalised those where unable to contribute until late in their working lives as well as those with broken work patterns and individuals close to retirement with inadequate retirement savings.
It also urged that the Low Income Superannuation Contribution (LISC) be retained past the 2017-18 income year to make the superannuation system more equitable for low-income workers or if it was not retained by the Federal Government that an alternative mechanism be developed to boost superannuation involvement for low income earners.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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