The Federal Government's decision to hold the superannuation guarantee (SG) at 9.5 per cent until 2021 will force Australian retirees to rely on the Age Pension instead of their super funds, former Prime Minister, Paul Keating believes.
Hitting out at the Government's plan to postpone the rise of the SG to 12 per cent, Keating said the move amounted to "the wilful sabotage of the nation's universal savings scheme".
In an opinion piece published on The New Daily (http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/09/03/keating-isnt-first-super-betrayal/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The+New+Daily+Thursday+492014&utm_content=The+New+Daily+Thursday+492014+CID_b34edfe1cd721f3b411c045d2d6bd714&utm_source=&utm_term=Paul%20Keating%20Tony%20Abbott%20has%20wilfully%20sabotaged%20super), the former Prime Minister warned the decision would leave the average Australian worker $100,000 worse off in their retirement.
"The Treasurer talks of ending the age of entitlement," he said. "I gave substance to that notion 30 years ago, when I first asked Australians to provide for their own retirement – to move beyond reliance on the Age Pension as the default anti-destitution measure.
"[The Government's] decision puts the pension back at centre stage, as retirees find that their superannuation accumulation is not large enough to live from without pension supplementation.
"[The] decision is an appaling one – by a Government lacking any genuine or conscientious concern for the nation's workforce."
Keating added that the move ranked alongside the Howard Government's decision to scrap his Government's 15 per cent SG, and warned it would have a long-term impact.
"The cost of [the] decisionwill not only adversely affect the baby boom generation, but more substantially their children – the so-called generations X and Y," he said.
