One Nation’s super access plan sparks debate

Pauline Hanson has accused Treasurer Jim Chalmers of “acting hysterically” after he claimed One Nation’s plan to allow renters and home borrowers to access a quarter of their super would leave Australians poorer.

Labor has gone on the offensive after One Nation’s treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce announced a plan to allow Australians to withdraw a quarter of their employer’s 12 per cent compulsory super contribution, over three years, to fund housing costs.

“Jim Chalmers is acting hysterically over a proposal that would let someone struggling to pay their rent or mortgage keep 9 per cent going into super instead of 12 per cent, and take the 3 per cent difference as a tax-effective pay boost for up to three years,” Senator Hanson said on X on Monday.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t so thoroughly buggered the economy, Jim, they wouldn’t need to.

“And there’s nothing more anti-worker than presiding over four years of falling real wages.”

Dr Chalmers claims allowing workers to withdraw a quarter of their employer super contributions was a financial risk, even though it would still amount to Australians keeping 9 per cent of their retirement savings, which was the compulsory employer contribution rate until June 2013.

“This will end superannuation as we know it and make millions of Australians poorer as a consequence,” the Treasurer told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

“One Nation is anti-super because One Nation is anti-worker. You can’t be pro-worker and anti-superannuation.”

Mr Joyce said One Nation’s policy would “keep people in their own home”.

“This is not a seismic shift in administration. It’s a change in attitude — that if you’re doing it tough, you get some of your own money back,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“If you lose your house, as an accountant, you’re going to be vastly worse off than the benefit you’ll get from that margin of investment over the longer-term. I just can’t see why the government’s got a problem with this.”

Existing hardship rules out Australians to withdraw from their compulsory employer contributions to prevent the forced sale of their home and fund medical treatment.

The Coalition lost the last election with a plan to allow Australians to withdraw up to $50,000 of their super to fund the mortgage deposit on their first home.

Former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison’s allow those who had lost their job during COVID to withdraw up to $20,000 from their super, over two maximum $10,000 instalments in 2020.

Labor is opposed to allowing Australians to withdraw from the compulsory employer contributions component of their super but the Federal Government’s first home super saver scheme allows to withdraw from their voluntary contributions to buy their first home.

Up to $15,000 can be voluntary added to super in any one financial year, up to $50,000 across all years, and all of it can be withdrawn if a tax deduction had not been claimed.

Labor and the unions have close connections to industry superannuation funds with former treasurer and Labor national president Wayne Swan the chairman of Cbus, also known as Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund.

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