Would you like to have more time and money to see your grandkids, visit family and enjoy pursuits that you sacrificed during your working life? Or would you like to have more worries about money, more stress and more late nights working out budgets?

These are the questions that should have been asked of all Australian workers before last week’s decision by the Federal Government to freeze the superannuation guarantee levy at 9.5 per cent.

This wasn’t a decision that was put to the people at last year’s election. In fact, the Coalition promised that it would increase superannuation to 12 per cent by 2021. Now it is freezing the rate at the current level until 2021.

Over a working life, the difference between 9.5 per cent and 12 percent can be huge. You can find calculations online showing the lost superannuation savings for different workers at different ages of their careers – and the results are not good for anyone.  For many Australians, the difference between 9.5 per cent and 12 percent over a career of 35 to 40 years, would result in taking home a retirement income of just 50 per cent of their pre-retirement income instead of 70 per cent that a 12 per cent rate would provide.

The retirement phase of life has been talked about a lot lately.  Firstly there were the changes to pension indexation – again a surprise broken promise. Now there is this. Sure, superannuation is paid by employers and there is a chance that workers will see more in their wages – but this is not an argument that holds water compared to the opportunity to ensure there are savings for a decent living standard in retirement.

Retirement should be a time of relaxation and enjoyment for Australians, and certainly a time where financial worries are behind us – whether on the pension or drawing down superannuation.

One of the great things about Australia is that we are a high wage country and we look after people in their retirement.  The introduction of superannuation by Paul Keating was another great Labor initiative to give dignity to people in their retirement years. 

However, the double whammy of reduced pensions and reduced superannuation is a hit on the people who have lived and worked for many years and have given so much to make the country what it is.

What’s worse is that those making the decision are keeping their incredibly generous superannuation scheme for which taxpayers contribute 15.4 per cent. Unfair…again!

Michael Pilbrow

​Yass.