During debate over the Better Advice Bill Coalition MP Tim Wilson criticised the superannuation industry for preventing young Australians the chance to purchase homes.
Wilson said it was “despicable” that industry super funds were investing in residential real estate while denying Australians the opportunity to use their own super for home ownership.
“If we actually believed in the wealth creation of every Australian, we’d actually talk about why home ownership is the biggest financial decision Australians can make and superannuation is the second,” Wilson said.
“But because we have an obsession between the collusion of the Labor party and their mates in the industry super fund sector, they constantly put superannuation ahead of home ownership, so much so, they’ll literally run interference to keep super funds buying homes at the expense of young Australians.
“There is no more despicable act that I can think of in terms of public policy, than the deliberate act to socially engineer big super to own homes but to deny young Australians to deny their chance at their dream.”
Wilson said there was “a day of reckoning coming” as home first/super second was building a movement.
“Home first/super second is an absolute understanding that people are looking to utilise their super to be able to buy their own home because Australians know – like when they access financial advice – that doing so advantages their creation for wealth,” Wilson said.
“But home ownership is not just the best mechanism for people to create wealth, it’s the best foundation which builds security for your economic future, your family and the whole of your working life as well as your retirement.
“Home ownership is critical for the economic and democratic distribution of wealth in this nation and is the foundation of which people build the success of their life for themselves and others.”
Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite said he could never understand why members of the Coalition always ridiculed Australia’s superannuation system.
“It’s something we should be proud of, it’s one of the best retirement savings systems in the world and the proof of that is in the statistics – $3.1 trillion in the Australian superannuation system at the beginning of this year,” Thistlethwaite said.
“That’s the fourth largest pool of investment savings of any nation in the world and Australia has the 55th largest population in the world.
“We’re batting well above our average and it’s something we should be proud of.”
super and home ownership are two different things. a home is an asset, but it is also a liability in that it creates bills. they must NEVER be combined. and, super needs to compound all our lives to work its best. Mr Wilson and his friends do not understand this
Dear Matt Thistlethwaite,
The reason the Coalition ridicule Superannuation is because it’s an absolutely fantastic idea (that they opposed tooth and nail) which was not their idea (as let’s face it they have none) and it’s been proven to benefit all Australians (which is a general principle the Coalition finds abhorrent). That is why.
Not only that, the Superannuation Industry GAVE BIRTH TO AND NURTURED the Financial Advice industry as we know it today. Any adviser who supports this village idiot Wilson and his moronic, politically motivated ideas must hate their own job. Wilson wants the Superannuation Industry to be a breeding ground for real-estate agents and mortgage brokers…because if his idiotic idea takes hold, that’s what it will become.