Major parties on the same retirement income path

You’d be forgiven for thinking there’s limited difference between the two major parties this election, with Challenger’s retirement income chair, Jeremy Cooper, saying that as far as retirement income policy is concerned, there are “some differences in style” between the Coalition and Labor but their substantive positions are largely the same.

Cooper told the Lonsec Symposium in Sydney today that both parties were focused on reform in that policy space, with the Liberal Party’s stance on the Retirement Covenant remaining unchanged throughout the election cycle.

Labor’s election platform on retirement income was, in contrast, focused on two key concepts. A Shorten Government would again try to pass the Purpose of Superannuation Bill currently stalled in the Senate, with the aim of deciding a national objective for the retirement system, and also pledged to improve the regulatory framework for retirement income stream products for those entering retirement.

The two policy stances were, however, essentially the same in substance, Cooper said, with the differentiating factors being in style.

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He also said that a policy concern for whoever won the election was the fact that a lot of tax concessions were invested in the retirement income system, but that adequate use wasn’t being made of them to improve standards of living post-work.