The Federal Opposition says cut-backs announced as part of the Government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) have served to further undermine the incentive for Australians to save for retirement.
The shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, said the MYEFO changes were effectively punishing those who were prepared to take responsibility for their own retirement needs.
"By pausing indexation of concessional contribution caps, Labor is again reducing the incentive for people to save more because the caps are not keeping pace with inflation and wage increases," he said.
Cormann said he believed it was absurd for the Government to force people to contribute more to compulsory superannuation while on the other hand removing incentives for people to make additional voluntary super contributions.
"Instead of increasing compulsion, the Government should complement current compulsory savings levels with appropriate incentives for people to make additional voluntary savings – in particular at a stage of their lives when they are most able to do so," he said.
