Nick Sherry
The Federal Opposition has given its formal support to the superannuation changes announced by the Government in the May Budget.
After refusing to give better than indicative support to the Budget changes in the absence of formal Government costings, the Opposition spokesman on superannuation, Senator Nick Sherry, said the Australian Labor Party had decided to support the package following its finalisation by the Government on Tuesday.
“It is in the interests of stability and certainty in our compulsory superannuation system and provides some improvements to simplicity and incentives,” he said.
Sherry said that while the Opposition had consulted widely on the Budget package with a range of groups, its task had been made difficult by the Government’s refusal to provide detailed costings.
While confirming support for the Budget superannuation package, Sherry said he believed the Government needed to reconsider the tax increase on contributions from 15 per cent to 46.5 per cent for employees where employers failed to provide a tax file number.
He claimed more than a million Australians could be hurt by the measure, most of whom would be in the low to middle income bracket.
The research house has offered a silver lining after super fund returns saw the end of a five-month streak last month.
A survey of almost 6,000 fund members has identified weakening retirement confidence, particularly among those under 55 years of age, signalling an opportunity for super funds to better engage with members on their retirement journey.
The funds have confirmed the signing of a successor fund transfer deed, moving closer to creating a new $29 billion entity.
A number of measures, including super on Paid Parental Leave, funding to recover unpaid super, and frameworks to encourage investment in the energy transition, have been welcomed by the superannuation industry.
Add new comment