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In 1992 when Paul Keating increased superannuation the Liberals opposed it. And then in 1996 when John Howard was running for office both sides of politics said they’d increase superannuation from nine to 15 per cent. John Howard broke his promise then and froze it at nine per cent. Finally Labor had a breakthrough in 2012 and set out a legislated schedule to increase it from nine to 12 per cent. Yet again, the repeat offenders, the recidivists who hate compulsory superannuation have struck again.
Because of the lies and dirty deals of the Prime Minister, an average income earner aged 25 today will be about $100,000 worse off in their retirement income because of this delay.
And because of this Prime Minister, national contributions to superannuation will be $128 billion lower by 2025.
Make no mistake – the Low Income Superannuation Contribution has not been ‘saved’ – it has been killed off under Tony Abbott’s dirty deal. Tony Abbott and Clive Palmer have ripped away retirement savings from 3.6 million low income workers – including 2.1 million women.
The Prime Minister cares more about sneaky backroom deals than the retirement incomes of millions of people.
Australians for generations to come will pay the price for Tony Abbott’s betrayal on superannuation.
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With hundreds of qualified and trusted welfare officers facing the sack, Labor has called on the Abbott Government to reverse its decision to only fund religious chaplains in our schools.
Determining who is best placed to support the needs of local students should be left to principals and school communities – not to Christopher Pyne and George Brandis.
It is an unjustifiable disgrace that hundreds of schools will lose valued, hardworking and qualified counsellors as a result of the Abbott Government’s ideology being rammed down the throat of school students across Australia.
In June this year the High Court ruled that it was invalid for payments to be made directly by the Commonwealth to schools under the program.
The Federal Government is now giving the money to states and territories to administer, but on the condition it is used to only fund religious chaplains.
Labor also called on the Abbott Government to outline how it would ensure states put safeguards in place.
Without safeguards, we risk seeing complaints return to the high levels seen under the religious-only chaplains program set up by the Howard Government.
Labor previously expanded the program so school communities had the choice of hiring a qualified welfare officer or counsellor.