Pauline Hanson has accused Treasurer Jim Chalmers of “acting hysterically” after he claimed One Nation’s plan to allow renters and home borrowers to access a quarter of their super would leave Australians poorer.
Labor has gone on the offensive after One Nation’s treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce announced a plan to allow Australians to withdraw a quarter of their employer’s 12 per cent compulsory super contributions, over three years, to fund housing costs.
One Nation calculated a median-income, full-time worker on $90,500 allowed to withdraw three per cent of their overall wages, kept in super, would have an extra $2300 a year or $44 a week after paying a concessional tax rate of 15 per cent.
The party, out-polling the Coalition in most opinion polls, wants to liberalise and expand existing provisions that allow early access to super for limited hardship reasons, so Australians can more easily use their retirement savings to either pay their rent or mortgage.
Australians would still be saving 9 per cent of their earnings, as was government policy until 2013, and would heed a Grattan Institute warning from 2019 - made by an economist who is now a senior Treasury official - that raising compulsory employer super contributions from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent would mean lower wages.
“Jim Chalmers is acting hysterically over a proposal that would let someone struggling to pay their rent or mortgage keep 9 per cent going into super instead of 12 per cent, and take the 3 per cent difference as a tax-effective pay boost for up to three years,” Senator Hanson said on X on Monday.
“Perhaps if you hadn’t so thoroughly buggered the economy, Jim, they wouldn’t need to.
“And there’s nothing more anti-worker than presiding over four years of falling real wages.”
Senator Hanson, a grandmother who at 72 is old enough to qualify for the age pension, confirmed her policy would allow early access available to anyone renting or paying off a mortgage as an owner-occupier, affecting seven million people.
“If they’re a renter or paying a mortgage - if they feel they want to access that money and get one quarter of their superannuation they’re putting away each week,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“It means that people can pay their bills, their electricity, food on the table.
“Cost of living is forcing people out of their rental accommodation, people living rough, in their cars, couch surfing, don’t have homes, living in tents.
“We’re not taking anything away: we’re allowing those struggling Australians to be able to access their super and use it now.
“Once they lose their house, they’re actually destroyed for life because to try and get back in the housing market, it’s going to be extremely hard for them.”
She also insisted it wouldn’t add to already high inflation levels.
“It’s neutral so you’re not going to pump up inflation with it at all. It won’t be inflationary.”
Dr Chalmers claimed allowing workers to withdraw a quarter of their employer super contributions was a financial risk, even though it would still amount to Australians keeping 9 per cent of their wages put into retirement savings, which was the compulsory employer contribution rate until June 2013.
“This will end superannuation as we know it and make millions of Australians poorer as a consequence,” the Treasurer said in Canberra on Monday.
“One Nation is anti-super because One Nation is anti-worker. You can’t be pro-worker and anti-superannuation.”
Mr Joyce said One Nation’s policy would “keep people in their own home” and noted 66,000 people claimed early access to super last year under hardship provisions after having to live on Centrelink.
“It’s the most convoluted process,” he said.
“It’s the person who is saying, ‘I’m going to lose my house, I’m going to be kicked out and live on the road’.
“People who are in stress will start taking some money out. If someone was paying, for instance, $600 a week for rent, and they get assistance, guess what? They’re still paying about $600 a week in rent.”
Existing hardship rules allow Australians to withdraw from their compulsory employer contributions to prevent the forced sale of their home and fund medical treatment.
Funds for illness care require an application to the tax office while hardship applications are made to a super fund.
Brendan Coates, who is now the assistant secretary of the housing group within Treasury, in 2019 wrote a paper for the progressive Grattan Institute think tank arguing the then 9.5 per cent compulsory rate of super was sufficient and argued against it being raised higher to 12 per cent, as Labor was advocating.
He joined the Commonwealth Treasury in May, after 11 years with the Grattan Institute.
“You can have too much of a good thing. Compulsory super shouldn’t rise, because that would force Australians to save for a higher living standard in retirement than they have while working,” Mr Coates said seven years ago.
“If governments want to boost retirement incomes, the planned increase in compulsory super appears the worst way to get there.
“Our work shows that raising compulsory super to 12 per cent would reduce wages today and do little to boost the retirement incomes of many low and middle-income workers tomorrow.”
He declined to comment to The Nightly on Monday given his new role as a public servant.
The Super Members Council calculated the median, full-time worker would be $25,000 poorer by retirement if up to 3 per cent of their wages could be withdrawn over three years.
“Turning super into an ATM is a reckless idea that would make battling Australians poorer,” chief executive Misha Schubert said.
The Coalition lost the last election with a plan to allow Australians to withdraw up to $50,000 of their super to fund the mortgage deposit on their first home.
Former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison’s government allowed those who had lost their job or working hours during COVID to withdraw up to $20,000 from their super, over two maximum $10,000 instalments in 2020.
Labor is opposed to allowing Australians to withdraw from the compulsory employer contributions component of their super but the Federal Government’s first home super saver scheme allows individuals to withdraw from their voluntary contributions to buy their first home.
Up to $15,000 can be voluntary added to super in any one financial year, up to $50,000 across all years, and all of it can be withdrawn if a tax deduction had not been claimed.
Labor and the unions have close connections to industry superannuation funds with former treasurer and Labor national president Wayne Swan the chairman of CBUS Super, also known as Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund.
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