Political meddling causes uncertainty

The Federal Government needs to reassure Australians about the stability of superannuation policy in the face of new research suggesting most Australians do not trust politicians to leave the existing policy settings in place.

That is the bottom line of research conducted for the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds and released by the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, Fiona Reynolds, today.

The ‘Mind and Mood’ study, conducted by IPSOS Mackay, indicated that 67 per cent of Australians think the Government will probably change the superannuation rules by the time they retire and that they will lose a lot of their super in tax.

Commenting on the findings, Reynolds said they indicate the need for the Government to set targets for superannuation well into the next decade and for a bi-partisan approach on the part of the major political parties.

“Successive rule changes make people feel anxious about planning for their retirement,” she said. “We need super targets; we need super certainty.”

Reynolds said Australia also needed a plan to lift contribution levels from the current 9 per cent to 12 per cent by 2012 and to 15 per cent by 2015.

She said that the results of the survey were both surprising and disturbing given that it is now 15 years since compulsory superannuation was introduced.

Reynolds said the survey indicated that many Australians took a back-burner approach to retirement planning and as many as 41 per cent were uncertain about whether the age pension would still be around when they retire.

She said this made it imperative that the Federal Government reassures the less well off that a universal age pension was fundamental to Australia’s national retirement scheme.