Angus Taylor tells Labor to back off super piggy banks

Despite Jim Chalmers saying he would bring an end to the ‘super wars’, the opposition is fired up and hitting back.

The Opposition has demanded the Albanese government not use Australians’ superannuation as a “piggy bank for pet projects”.

In a week dominated by the future of the super system, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a plan to legislate an objective for super, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor gave a speech of his own to the industry on Thursday.

It’s also sparked debate about capping tax concessions for those with more than $3 million in their retirement savings, which would save the government potentially billions each year.

Mr Taylor, in a speech to ASFA - the peak body for superannuation - said it was important that there was stability and certainty in the system, but the government should not play with Australians’ money.

“It isn’t a piggy bank for pet projects, and it isn’t a revenue loophole to be closed,” he said.

“Fundamentally, super is Australians’ money, not the government’s, and this is essential in considering the purpose of super.

“Labor does not have a mandate to tax and spend Australians’ super.”

He used his speech to back in the principle of an objective for super, but said the objective should not stray from super’s primary purpose.

He said the Coalition still supported the use of super early to get Australians into homes or to support them if they were left unable to work.

“It is not sufficient for a compulsory retirement system to stay silent on the issue of home ownership. Remembering that the pioneers in the Hawke/Keating government did not speak of preserving savings, but preserving quality of life,” he said.

“It is important that a balanced superannuation system support home ownership and good retirement outcomes.”

A debate between Wayne Swan and Chris O’Keefe was sparked over superannuation.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Coalition was undermining superannuation at “every single opportunity”.

“There won’t be major changes to super. What we are doing is defining properly the objective, to make sure that people can have a quality of life in their later years, and that is why we are working on that,” he said.

Earlier, former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan hit out at naysayers criticising the Albanese government’s superannuation plan in a fiery debate.

Going head-to-head with radio host Chris O’Keefe on the Today show on Thursday, the ALP president defended the government’s plan.

“This is a simple proposal, a very sensible clean-up, but it’s very modest,” Mr Swan said.

O’Keefe, who had Dr Chalmers on his show on Wednesday, criticised the Treasurer for changing his language after seeing “this was all blowing up in his face”.

“It’s typical Labor politics. He flew the kite to see which way the wind blows, realised ‘oh no, the kite’s flying back at me I better water this down’. That is exactly what happened,” O’Keefe said.

Mr Swan hit back: “With due respect, that’s crap”.

Former treasurer and Labor Party president Wayne Swan got into a heated debate with 2GB's Chris O'Keefe on super on Thursday morning.

Denying it was personal given Dr Chalmers once worked for him, Mr Swan said lies and distortions on the matter of super “don’t reflect well on the people making them”.

O’Keefe bit back, saying Dr Chalmers “wide-ranging think piece … meant nothing”.

“It does mean a lot,” Mr Swan replied.

“If we legislate the purpose of super, which is for retirement, we protect the retirement savings of millions and millions of Australians, a pretty important thing to do.

“People like you beat it up. It gets out of proportion.”

Not backing down despite repeated interjections from host Sarah Abo, O’Keefe said Dr Chalmers’ messaging this week had been all over the place and had scared “the living daylights” out of people concerned about their retirement eggs.

Abo called for everyone to “cool it down a little bit”.

“This feels like the leaders debate, I can’t get a word in,” Abo lamented.

Wayne Swan defended the government’s plans to legislate a super objective and consider changes to tax concessions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton appeared on the program shortly after, continued the attack on Dr Chalmers’ plan.

He warned that while the change to tax breaks might just affect the 36,000 people with more than $3 million in their super accounts to begin with, “with Labor it never stops there”.

“If Labor runs outs of revenue sources, they’ve then got to come after the next rung (of super accounts),” Mr Dutton said.

“There’s a lot of Australians who are very aspirational, who work hard, and for many they’ll have drawn down out of their superannuation to pay their mortgage off so they don’t have those payments in retirement as well.

“People have pumped money into superannuation, and the uncertainty that the Prime Minister is creating I think just shows they can’t manage the budget or the economy.”