RBA interest rates: Reserve Bank lifts official rate to 3.35% in record ninth consecutive hike to tame inflation
GuardianNov 27, 2022
Australia Plans to Limit Early Access to Retirement Funds, Cut Tax Breaks
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Image copyright: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage [via Sky News Australia]
The Facts
On Thursday, Australia's center-left Labor Party government announced plans to change superannuation rules, reportedly including restricting early access to funds and limiting tax breaks for high-earners. The changes come as pressure continues to mount on the federal budget.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insisted that no major changes are being considered to the way the $3.3T retirement savings system is managed beyond defining its objective in law.
The Spin
Left narrative
Though obvious that the objective of superannuation should be to provide retirement incomes for older Australians, the Coalition has sought to transform it into a solution to everything from housing affordability to healthcare problems, while the wealthy use the system to evade taxes. The reforms proposed by the Albanese government are a decent starting point from which to begin rectifying the superannuation.
Right narrative
It is disgraceful that Labor is characterizing the decision to allow people to access their funds during the pandemic merely as a cost to the taxpayer when they are actually motivated by a problematic plunge in liquidity for the current administration. The party's ultimate goal is crystal clear: to restrict Australians from using their own money so that the Albanese Cabinet can plunder it to fund spending without the need to drastically alter the national budget.
