Turnbull and Morrison risk losing the federal election if they proceed with changes to superannuation

THE Prime Minister and Treasurer have 54 days to scrap their superannuation changes or risk losing the election.

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison have 54 days to scrap their superannuation changes or risk losing the election.

It’s an ominous figure – it’s the same number of Liberal MPs who overthrew Tony Abbott to install a man who treats the Coalition’s most loyal supporters with contempt.

It also happens to be the age of many Liberal voters who may well vote Labor on July 2 unless the Coalition’s disgraceful superannuation caps are ditched.

In fact, anyone a decade either side of 54 who has worked all their life to save for their own and their family’s future will think twice about voting Liberal if the super rules, sprung like a booby-trap on Budget night, are still there on election eve.

The Australia we love, that the world envies and that has blessed us with health and prosperity, was built on the back of those mums and dads who struggled to build their businesses, work their way up the ladder and create a great home for their kids.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison have put their election chances at risk with changes to superannuation. Pic: AAP

It is the post-war and migrant generations and their offspring who worked so hard to contribute to a generous, equitable, aspirational, multiracial modern society that rewards individual effort at the same time as protecting those in need.

This is the social compact that made Australia so successful.

The beauty of our post-war work/welfare system, which was completed in the ’90s with compulsory super, is that hard work and sacrifice will always be rewarded.

Paul Keating introduced compulsory super in 1992. The deal was: in exchange for a guaranteed low tax rate, you put aside as much money as you can – with a minimum of 9.5 per cent of your earnings – to live on in your retirement. That way you won’t need the aged pension.

This was revolutionary long-term thinking. Most people pay lip service to the idea of “saving for a rainy day” but the reality is that without the compulsory component, we’d find reasons to spend that 9.5 per cent (12 per cent from 2025).

The reason for the lower tax breaks was obvious – a dollar in 1992 would have far greater purchasing power than 40 years later. But – and here’s the important bit – what about the other 90.5 per cent of those earnings? Well, of course, that was all taxed at whatever normal rate these uncomplaining Aussies were on – the higher the earnings, the greater the amount.

This is the hard cash that has paid for the hospitals, education, roads, military and other services we rely on as well, of course, as paying for all those people who can’t or won’t work.

But thanks to years of expanding public services and bloated welfare entitlements, less than half the population now pays to support the rest. This, apparently, is “fair”.

Hardworking Australians are being robbed of their retirement dreams.

Only it isn’t. It is grotesque. Yet most hard-working Australians don’t complain, because they have faith in the “system”.

Peter Costello recently pointed out that super relies, above all else, on “consistency”.

People spend their lifetimes working, paying taxes, and supporting others – but every day are planning their own future.

Now, the Coalition has thrown out the rule book and put a Bolshevik-style limit on how much you can save, and – disgracefully – backdated it a decade.

It’s bad enough that in this Budget Morrison and Turnbull did absolutely nothing to rein in their out-of-control government spending and to stop the ever-increasing army of welfare recipients.

Now they are robbing hard-working Aussies of their greatest asset: their dreams.

They have the gall to tell the very people who have financed the welfare state that the maximum they can have in retirement (on current interest rates) is barely better than the aged pension itself. Why would they bother?

Such betrayal from a so-called “Liberal” government is beyond belief.

Twitter @rowandean