Federal Opposition would oppose lifting the SG

The Federal Opposition has declared it would oppose any increase in the superannuation guarantee in the current economic circumstances but would not be opposed to a soft compulsion regime.

The Opposition Spokesman on Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Pearce, has told a luncheon in Perth that he believes in light of the state of the global economy, any increase in the superannuation guarantee could not be justified.

“I believe that increasing the [superannuation guarantee] would adversely affect the Australian economy through the imposition of mandatory cost increases upon all employees,” he said. “As such, a compulsory uniform solution is not desirable at present — it would directly increase the cost of employment.”

Pearce said rather than increasing the superannuation guarantee, there was a need to focus on flexible solutions that could be tailored to individual circumstances or workplace levels.

The Opposition spokesman then pointed to soft compulsion and the evidence from the Tasmanian public service and New Zealand that suggested it worked.

“The Tasmanian experience reveals 33 per cent of new full-time staff are now contributing to their super through soft compulsion,” he said. “Ninety per cent of those are committing the full five per cent to their superannuation accounts, providing a total of 14 per cent superannuation per annum”