By mike taylor
The man who presided over the implementation of the superannuation guarantee charge, former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, has called for it to be lifted to 15 per cent.
Keating, who was Federal Treasurer at the time compulsory employer superannuation contributions were introduced, told a Melbourne Financial Services Symposium in early March that the current 9 per cent contribution would not be enough to provide most Australians with a comfortable retirement.
In fact, Keating claimed that his Government had wanted to lift the superannuation guarantee to 15 per cent before it lost office to the Howard Government in 1996.
“The Government I led wanted to move from 9 per cent to 15 per cent but the current government rescinded that policy and as a result the mandatory retirement income has stalled at 9 per cent,” he said.
Keating urged an improvement to the existing superannuation regime, describing it as Australia’s most successful mandated savings scheme.
“We should be putting in place the steps to take superannuation contributions to a mandatory 15 per cent,” he said.
Keating said that by building a savings buffer via superannuation, Australia would be better positioned to underwrite a large share of its own capital formation.
