Opposition digs in against raising SG
The Federal Opposition has declared its position on the superannuation guarantee, stating that it is opposed to the compulsory lifting of the 9 per cent guarantee to 12 per cent.
The Opposition spokesman on financial services, Senator Mathias Cormann (pictured), said that the lifting of the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent would undoubtedly be welcomed by superannuation funds, but would effectively be cutting people’s take-home pay by more than 3 per cent.
“Clearly this is very popular with the superannuation industry, including union super funds — it gives them an automatic increase in funds under management without having to work hard for it,” he said.
By comparison, Cormann backed the findings of the Henry Tax Review, which opposed lifting the superannuation guarantee on the basis that it would impact most heavily the standard of living of low and middle-income earners.
The Opposition spokesman said that before pressing ahead with lifting the superannuation guarantee, the Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, needed to deliver on a pre-election commitment to abolish the preference for industry funds as default funds in modern awards, and act on the recommendations of the Cooper Review with respect to improving corporate governance arrangements.
Cormann said Shorten also needed to sort out the increasing problem of people inadvertently breaching superannuation contribution caps and being hit with excessive additional taxes as a result of the Government’s previous decision to halve concessional caps.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.
