STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (13:27): Last week, Senator Bragg felt like going out on a little adventure to the Press Club—Braggie's big day out. I think it gave everyone a little teaser of what we might expect to see if, God forbid, we ever end up with a government that's some combination of Taylor, Hume, Bragg, Canavan and Hanson. It would be an absolute horror show for working Australians.

What's become clear yet again is that the right-wing parties—the Liberal Party, the National Party and One Nation—are after Australians' super. It's not the first time and, sadly, I don't think it will be the last. Senator Bragg, in his little adventure to the National Press Club, said that he thinks superannuation is a strange experiment.

I think that working Australians would disagree, but we'll see. He called super for young people 'super for cats and dogs'. He absolutely did.

Pauline Hanson, just this week, has said that she thinks our super system is broken. For a long time now, we've seen attack after attack on superannuation by those opposite—the Liberal Party, the National Party and now Senator Hanson and One Nation, too. The Liberals' only solution to the housing crisis has been that people should be able to raid their super to buy a house.

Labor says that you can have both. You can have the super that you need to retire comfortably—an investment that will compound, build up over time and give you security in your retirement, and, because of Labor and our efforts to get more people into their own homes, you can own a home of your own too. While those opposite, the right-wing parties, are coming after working Australians' super, Labor will always protect it because Labor created superannuation.

Unions and working people fought for superannuation, and we will not allow the right-wing parties to come after it and take away the very thing that working Australians rely on to retire with security and with dignity. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): We will now proceed to the two-minute statements.