Sunrise: Protecting Australian Retirees

E&OE TRANSCRIPTTELEVISION INTERVIEWSUNRISE, SEVEN NETWORK1 SEPTEMBER 2020JournalistNow two former Labor prime ministers have taken aim at the government demanding it go ahead with next year's planned increased to compulsory super. Paul Keating introduced the scheme back in 1992 and says workers should not miss out.Paul Keating[Recording] They want to gyp ordinary people by two and a half per cent of their income for the rest of their life. I mean, the gall of it. I mean, the heartlessness of it.JournalistKevin Rudd, who moved to increase super contributions as well says the rise to 12% in the years ahead, should not be stalled.Kevin Rudd[Recording] This is a cruel assault by Morrison on the retirement income of working Australians and using the cover of COVID to try and get away with it.JournalistThe government is yet to make an official decision. Joining me now is the former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Kevin Rudd, good morning to you. Rather than being a cruel assault by the federal government, is it an acknowledgment that we're going into the worst recession since the Depression?Kevin RuddWell, you know, Kochie, there's always been an excuse not to do super and not to continue with super. And what we've seen in the past is the Liberal Party at various stages just trying to kill this scheme which Paul Keating got going for the benefit of working Australians all those years ago. They had no real excuse for deferring this move from nine to 12%. When they did it back in 2014, and this would be a further deferral. Look, what's really at stake here, Kochie, is just working families watching your program this morning, having a decent retirement. That's why Paul brought it in.JournalistSure.Kevin RuddThat's why we both decided to come and speak out.JournalistI absolutely agree with it, but it's a matter of timing. What do you say to all the small business owners out there who are just trying to keep afloat? To say, hey gang, you're gonna have to pay an extra half a per cent in super, that you're going to have to pay on a quarterly basis, to add to your bills again, to try and survive this.Kevin RuddWell, what Mr Morrison saying to those small business folks is the reason we don't want to do this super increase is because it's going to get in the road of a wage increase and you can't have this both ways, mate. Either you've got an employer adding 0.5 by way of a wage increase, or by super that's the bottom line here.JournalistOK.Kevin RuddYou can't simply argue that this is all going to disappear into some magic pudding. The bottom line is: the reason we did it this way, and Paul before me, was a small increment each year.JournalistRight.Kevin RuddBut it builds up as you know, you're a finance guy Kochie, into a ginormous nest egg for people.JournalistAbsolutely.Kevin RuddAnd for the country.JournalistI do not disagree with the overall theory of it. It's just in the timing. So what you're saying is to Australian bosses around the country is to go to your staff and say, 'no, you're not going to get a pay increase, because I'm going to put more into your super, and you've got to like it or lump it'.Kevin RuddWell, Kochie, if that was the case, why is it that we've had no super increase in the guarantee levy over the last five or six years, and wages growth has been absolutely doodly-squat over that period of time? In other words, the argument for the last five years is we couldn't do an SGL increase from nine to 12 because would impact on wages. Guess what, we got no increase in super and no increase in real wages. And it just doesn't hold, mate.JournalistThe Reserve Bank is saying don't do it. Social services group are saying don't do it.Kevin RuddWell, mate, if you look carefully at what the governor the RBA says, he says on the impact on wages, yes, it is, in his language of wage deferral on which he does not express an opinion. And as for the employment, the jobs impact, he says he does not have a view. I think we need to be very careful in reading the detail of what governor Lowe has had to say. Our argument is just, what's decent for working families? And why are the pollies and their staffers getting 15.4% and yet working families who Paul would try to look after with this massive reform 30 years ago, stuck at nine? I don't think that's fair. It's a double standard.JournalistYep. I absolutely agree with you on that as well.