The Australian is reporting that the government wants to raid the super industry – remember the ATO tell us “it’s your money, just not yet”, well maybe never. The ALP have long cast their beady greedy eyes on super, below is a letter Alex Robson and I published in the AFR the day before the 2007 election.
It is surprising that Wayne Swan has rejected Peter Costello’s comments about ALP plans to dip into superannuation funds as “outright lies” (“Labor won’t dip into retirement cash: Swan”, November 21).
Perhaps Swan hasn’t read the ALP’s national platform and constitution, which was formally adopted at the ALP national conference in late April.
Anyone reading that document would see for themselves that the ALP plans to develop specific incentives and structures that will encourage super funds to invest in agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure.
Furthermore, superannuation funds will be expected to invest in low-income housing and the transport network. To be sure, some of these “investments” are worthy of government attention, but if they were viable investment opportunities, super funds would have invested in them already.
Of course, the ALP is hardly going to be so vulgar as to introduce prescribed asset requirements for super funds, but we are promised that Labor in government will review existing public policy to enable greater involvement in infrastructure financing and delivery by Australia’s superannuation funds and also that trustees will be encouraged to evaluate and reduce negative social or environmental consequences of their activities.
What better way to do this than to invest in government pet projects?
The bottom line is this: the ALP itself has indicated that superannuation money will be invested in a range of areas and projects that trustees now have chosen not to invest in.
Swan needs to explain to us where the “outright lies” are to be found. Either Costello has lied, or Swan’s party platform is a lie.
The great irony is that compulsory super is a Labor reform and probably one of the least bad nanny-state policies that various governments have imposed on Australians. The other great irony is that the super industry is in dire need of reform, but not the sort of reform that enriches government at the expense of retirees.
Except forcing people to save early on in their working life forces them to borrow more to buy a house, cars, etc…
I forecast this to myself the day that my business had to start paying the SGC knowing that it would be impossible that these huge amounts of money would be left alone.
Hooray, the government is looking to dragoon the savings of the people to invest in projects with poor returns, poor ROI and possibly no ROI analysis.
Argentina here we come.
Just when you think the government couldn’t make people any less confident about sovereign risk, they just keep on surprising.
All visible assets are looking a bit riskier today. All I can think of is to buy gold and hide it under the bed. But thats the first place they will look when they do the political reliability audit.
Had a quick look.
BSA according commsuck is paying a 10% dividend and has a PE ratio of 7.6 – their balance sheet has gone a little backwards but remind me again, gentle readers…
Why the FUCK would I want Woine Swannee investing my fucking money?
Checking the BBSW on AFMA and the price on commfuck, NABHA are paying a perpetual dividend, valued at 6.9% now.
Why the FUCK would I want Woine Swannee investing my fucking money?
Does forestry count as Ag? Maybe they can pick up the remnants of Gunns and face the misanthropic zealotry of the green movement.
How many times has the Rudd/Gillard government changed superannuation laws? Talk about sovereign risk.
It will be interesting to see what happens, I think the early election is getting more and more likely.
I agree Pedro.
This rubbish smells like Victorian election in ’88 when Labor was helped by the bureaucracy to hide all the worst economic data until after the election.
“It will be interesting to see what happens, I think the early election is getting more and more likely.”
Really Pedro? Others have said the same. I Hope so. The thing is they are not totally stupid (with the obvious exception of Wayne Swan). Its hard to imagine the turkeys deliberately hurrying on Christmas.
This is all-bets-are-off-start-shooting-pollies territory.
Right now, I hope the libs are working up the mother of all campaigns: “If you vote for Juliar and the incompetent wastrels they WILL steal your superannuation”
and
“You cannot trust them not to steal your super and waste it – we have a CO2 tax and here’s the filthy lying slapper lying to you about that. ['Dere weel bee no karbun tex unda a gummunt oi leed'] How can you trust the worthless lying slapper?”
There’s your problem right there.
I don’t mind if they use Industry Super to fund the NBN. Commercially viable and all that.
I am trying to link a post Sinc let me do as a guest.
No deal!
Basically, all I want to say is “I told you so”
Details:
Written by Sinclair Davidson
May 15th, 2012 at 9:50 am
Guest Post: Is Superannuation a socialist plot?
44 comments
Regular threadster “.” sent though this guest post…
Rousie – that is why I am trying to get the HELL out. Read my guest post and you will see why.
SteveC gets to the heart of the matter once again…fucking idiot.
Here you go, Dot:
Is Superannuation a socialist plot?
Compulsory super is not “least bad” nanny-statism, it’s terrible. In fact, it’s patronising, because it’s like taking pocket money out of a kid’s hand and saying “I’ll mind this until you’re old enough to spend it sensibly.”
We’re not kids. It’s our money, so let us do with it what we like. Don’t force me to save for retirement if I have a personal debt crisis, however self-inflicted it may be. Don’t take my money away and save it at 7 percent if I am paying off a mastercard debt at 10 percent or a mortgage.
Taking an adult’s money away from them because they won’t use it wisely and locking it away “for later” is the most insulting, smothering, paternal thing you can do.
Keep in mind, too, that some people die before they retire. Those people will never see the money they earned that the caring, kind officials in Canberra office blocks have locked away from them and wouldn’t let them spend.
Also, the looming pension crisis across much of the developed world is entirely the result of dysfunctional welfare and ageism. We got rid of compulsory retirement- unlike many countries, where you have to retire.
Dot -
Yeah read it & it reminded me of some things I’d heard many years earlier. She rolled the dice on the economy to get the top job. You don’t think she’ll roll it on workers financial future to keep it?
We really should be wary of the ALPs inability to display any kind of shame. They aren’t constrained in the way most people are.
And to clarify, I’d be ok with the union super funds investing in govt projects like NBN just as long as they leave everyone else’s super alone.
Super would be obsolete if we dropped marginal tax rates to 15%
Excellent point Forester.
If we didn’t tax the billy-o out of income and property, housing would be cheaper but it would also be a much more attractive investment.
The whole tax system is mean and inefficient.
The Housing Summit revealed a new project home (house and land) in NW Sydney selling for 640k AUD – 46% of that 640k was TAX.
That’s on top of personal income tax rates that cut in really quickly.
Your retirement should be as easy as putting your savings into buying a few homes and about 10 blue chip shares, topping it up annually.
The idea we need to featherbed the unions to save for our retirement is a joke.
DD: The worst thing about superannuation is the retirement age. I cannot touch mine AT ALL until I am 55, and cannot access it until I am 67.
What if I earn shitloads, pay off all of my debt, and have millions in personal assets and more in my super portfolio of stocks, bonds and property…no. The Government requires you to work.
This is a gross violation of article 4 of the universal declaration of human rights.
Never had a self managed super account. Never tipped in money. Refuse to because there’s risk there.
Are you able to avoid the wretched system altogether?
I can’t. SMSF is the best option I have.
Cheaper housing is good but seeing housing as an attractive investment is not good and clearly works against cheaper housing. For more affordable housing I think we need to get back to seeing a house as a place to live in and a business enterprise as something one invests in, worked well in the past.
Chris – you just end up owning more houses that pay a higher after tax dividend, and renters are better off too.
People used to invest in real estate before we had our bubble. The bubble did not make it possible.
I wrote my super off as lost and dead from my very first paycheque. I never expected to benefit from it, so this is no loss to me. But I am furious with these fucking shit-stains on humanity’s bedsheets and what they’re trying to do. Give them long enough and they’ll pass laws to simply let them dip their hands in. May they all burn in hell.
I’ve written mine off too. You can’t count on super being there when you retire, as the rules are subject to change, and you don’t control the money.
It’s especially so given this news, that the government will use our super to fund government spending under the flimsy excuse of investment.
They’ve already raided Medicare and the National Fund so why not Super?
dd
You can control your money if there is enough of it. A self managed super fund apparently becomes viable at about $200 000.
Chris makes a good point, kids are taught from a young age that business is for evil price gougers and their only protection the kind hearted union official.
Pretty sure Keating set them up so people “wouldn’t become pensioners”.
So it was a bad idea that failed to achieve any of it’s aims.
“Sweet”
Bad news, guys.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/gillard-does-a-reverse-romney-to-fix-budget/story-e6frg9of-1226482905422
http://www.news.com.au/money/superannuation/gillard-sold-on-superannuation/story-e6frfmdi-1226127028866
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has dismissed the need for a sovereign wealth fund, saying the nation’s trillion-dollar superannuation pot serves that purpose.
Well that’s great for me because my last two posts were jam-packed with content and tapped into the visceral anger the vast majority of Australians have over this stupid MUTT of a woman trying to steal their saving to plug her failure.
Super schemes are not bad in theory
Super schemes were a bad idea (theory) by government here
You drug addled, fuckbrained loser.
Don’t forget a massive amount of this money is in unions hands.If think there will be anything left when they get through with their brothel creeping and high life your mad…
$173,315,000,000. That’s the total (that we know of) budget deficits thanks to Swan’s four budgets. The World’s Greatest Treasurer wins the prize of delivering the biggest budget deficits for four consecutive years. But hey, he’s going to deliver a budget surplus soon.
Well goodness me. Cosmetic facelifts all round then, and any manner of other ‘improvements’ people may think they need, all for ‘free’. Plus medicos to be paid from the public purse for any ‘check up’ or other unnecessary procedure they dream up to currently fleece the well-off from their own private purse. Plus luxury hotel standard hospitals for all. And continual psychological and alternative-to-allopathic ‘comfort’ for the worried well and extensive cosmetic dentistry. All on Medicare. Plus enhanced opportunities for Medicare fraud.
The demand, Fibro, is endless. The supply is not. So let the market provide the extra frills. Unless, like you, one believes in the money tree.
And counting. That’s a stunning figure, Gab. Should be on bumper stickers everywhere. Plus any other accounting of their wastefulness. People just don’t know. The media merely support Labor lies about the financial situation.
A small correction @ Don: Superannuation can be accessed on an unrestricted basis at age 65. You are probably thinking of the Age Pension, which is gradually moving to 67.
On the main topic:
I’m not in any way trying to defend this disgusting, corrupt government, but please remember people that it is the very nature of *any* government that they hold the gun to your head.
Meaning that if they want to change the rules so as to tax everyone earning above $50K/year at a 100% rate, they can. Just look at what’s happening in France.
So this problem is not limited to superannuation.
I agree though that we should not be forcing people to put money away for 40+ years, whether they need it now or not, just so some grubby politician can gloat about how much of a “concession” they are giving you.
Indeed we could learn lots from many of the post-commie European countries with their flat taxes at rates set in the low teens & business-friendly environment.
Here in Australia, soft-totalitarianism is alive an well.
I’m no tax lawyer, but I distinctly remember seeing old paperwork from when Commonwealth income tax was introduced as an “emergency” measure during WW2. Previously, the States did their own thing and haggled with the Commonwealth about contributions for such things as defence.
Not sure if anyone in Canberra has noticed but WW2 ended a while ago.
Anyway, the title of the form was to the effect of “Income Tax and PENSION FUND” something or other.
In other words, it was a GOVERNMENT run, COMPULSORY scheme of contribution to your own pension; i.e. SUPERANNUATION.
Successive hordes of bandits systematically looted said “fund” to the point where a later generation of bandits introduced a new version of the old scheme.
Anyone who thinks that their money will be safe in a private or public scheme in Australia is delusional.
Gold, non-perishable pharmaceuticals, ammunition and tools will be the few things of value left in a decade.
Dot, the Commonwealth Super Scheme, which was for APS pub servants, closed in the mid 1990s, but will be making payments through at least to the 2040s. Members of this scheme are almost forced to retire at “54/11″, and take the generous pension plus a lump sum, from their 55th birthday. If they dont take the option at 54/11, it takes about 5 or 6 years for the payments to get back to the 54/11 level.
Anyway, if you were in this APS scheme for 25 years, and never rose above the level of accounts clerk or photocopy toner changer, your pension would be permanently indexed, and over $1ooo per week, from your 55th birthday. And were you to cark, your nominated spouse (also on a CSS pension) would still get 65% of it. For life.
Have a nice day.
Political parties Must Be Abolished ,they are pits of Greed,Lying ,Corruption,Naked Ambition and Would be Dictators! It is the nature of the beast,it will never change ,totally untrustworthy.we need to remove All Money from them ,The People Need to Take Power ,and eliminate these vermin.do away with the Law Trade and trade unions for a start ,that willget rid of some of the Shit.
Boris,
Think about sortition.
We can’t get rid of political parties, it would violate the right to freely associate.
So, what is the deal with the “outlaw” motorcycle clubs?
Or is that the difference between “association” and “consorting”, or something else altogether?
I note without comment that the total has gone past the magic $250 Billion.
Total Commonwealth Government Securities
on Issue – $250,126m consisting of:
Treasury Bonds – $217,388m
Treasury Indexed Bonds – $16,719m
Treasury Notes – $16,000m
Other Securities – $19m
As at 28 September 2012
Updated weekly
Face value amounts rounded to the nearest million.
Securities on issue subject to the limit under the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911 total $245,539 million.
When all us guys <= 30 years old at work talk about super the only point of agreement is this: That we can't rely on a single cent to be there for actual retirement. Everyone was of the opinion it was a tax and that eventually we would get back a few scraps if we were lucky.
Its actually not that insane to believe. If you look at how government spending as a portion of GDP keeps going up every year, in 30 years time we could easily be facing the prospect of the government in control of every single dollar.
All it takes, mundi, is for a government to pass a law requiring the super funds to hold a certain percentage of their funds in guvvie securities.
Then stand back and watch the percentage go up…