Keywords: Retirement Savings
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ECONOMICS
- David James
- 29 January 2025
A plan to raise superannuation taxes on high-value funds has stalled in the Senate, sparking a broader debate about government control over retirement savings. Rooted in a unique system that places ownership squarely with individuals, Australia’s approach has delivered impressive returns, yet political pressures threaten to reshape its future.
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AUSTRALIA
- Adam Hughes Henry
- 08 October 2024
5 Comments
Australia’s housing crisis is increasingly seen as a byproduct of system rigged for the wealthy, while ordinary Australians grapple with debt and rising costs. As home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach, it's time to rethink housing as a right, not just a means of wealth accumulation.
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AUSTRALIA
- Jennifer McVeigh
- 25 May 2023
4 Comments
A rapidly growing cohort of homeless women over 55 has become the new casualties of Australia's housing market. With skyrocketing rents, an entrenched gender pay gap and inadequate pension funds, older women are slipping through the cracks owing to a tangle of systemic failures.
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ECONOMICS
- David James
- 08 April 2021
5 Comments
It is one of the ironies of Australian political history that a policy that has profoundly benefited this country’s version of capitalism came, not from the right, but from the Labor party and unions. The mandating of superannuation payments in 1992 under the Keating government has profoundly changed Australia’s financial system.
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AUSTRALIA
- Fatima Measham
- 12 April 2018
10 Comments
How comfortable does anyone really need to be? The amounts of money that get quoted in remuneration packages or property portfolios is incomprehensible to many Australians who manage to survive, even thrive, on so much less. Inequality seems to be driven by an incapacity to recognise what is enough and to stop.
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AUSTRALIA
- Francine Crimmins
- 14 April 2017
15 Comments
As a millennial, I frequently find myself being told to stop complaining about housing affordability. It's all about working harder, saving more and, for goodness' sake, keeping off the avocado. As a young person, I'm concerned about using super, a system which was put aside for our economic welfare in retirement, as a savings account for instant gratification. The government is trying to solve the housing crisis not through direct action, but by encouraging young people into lifelong debt.
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ECONOMICS
There has been great pressure on both of the major political parties to stop giving so-called rich retirees partial pension income. The conventional view has become that retired millionaires should not be feeding off the public teat. But in terms of income, many of those 'rich retirees' would actually be better off on the pension.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 25 May 2015
1 Comment
Tony Abbott has warned voters that Bill Shorten has his eye on their retirement savings. He once praised the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce as a 'uniquely gifted retail politician'. But more attention to wholesaling - i.e. policy resources - would help to get both pensions and super concessions on to a more sustainable footing.
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AUSTRALIA
- Brian Toohey
- 27 March 2015
6 Comments
Although the age pension will cost about $49 billion in 2017-18, it is means tested. In contrast, superannuation concessions are heavily biased in favour of high income earners. Both sides of politics pander to the wealthy and the cosseted finance sector, which want certainty that nothing will stand in the way of their super bonanza.
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AUSTRALIA
- Catherine Marshall
- 06 February 2015
18 Comments
The rewards of parenthood are immeasurable. But the price that women pay when they become mothers is unjust. This includes lost opportunities, gender wage gaps, and sparse superannuation savings. They really need an efficient and fair maternity leave scheme to support them as they transition from worker to working mother. Tony Abbott's 'signature' policy is now gone, and the 'replacement' families package has a big gap to fill.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 31 October 2014
11 Comments
Affordable housing ought to be a hot election issue. Sadly it’s not a government priority, with ordinary people being taught to be entitled to look to capital growth in bricks and mortar as the best path to financial security. That is producing a housing price bubble and public housing is being squeezed. As a result, an increasing number of Australians can’t afford to put a roof over their head.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kate Galloway
- 11 September 2014
14 Comments
Despite historical gains for women in terms of formal equality, structural issues - wage gap, superannuation gap, childcare, unpaid caring, inequitable income distribution - have not gone away. I do not see why my older women friends should be burdened with accumulated poverty simply because they are women. They carry a material burden because their unpaid work was considered to be performed 'for love', undeserving of financial security.
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