STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator GHOSH (Western Australia) (13:32): The Labor Party will always defend Australia's superannuation system from the coalition and from One Nation. Last week, we heard from Senator Bragg, the Colonel Kurtz of the Liberal Party, by himself deep in the jungle, fighting communism wherever he can find it. His latest enemy is a dignified retirement for working Australians.

The horror, the horror! Senator Bragg likened the extension of super to under-18s to extending super to cats and dogs. That's what he said would happen next.

While the retirement future of young Australians may be the subject of jokes by the Liberal Party, it's not a joke for us. Senator Bragg also wants to scrap the superannuation guarantee, claiming that it is one of the biggest policy failures since Federation. Imagine the delusion required to make such an absurd claim from the party that managed, created, defended and then tried to cover up robodebt.

Meanwhile, One Nation's Senator Hanson wants superannuation to be like a savings account, making it easier to withdraw money early, as and when you need it, rather than saving it for retirement. The coalition playbook and the One Nation playbook have merged seamlessly in this last term. They are a uniparty.

One Nation says, 'Withdraw super early,' and, during the COVID pandemic, the coalition said the same thing—that hard-working Australians should eat into their retirement funds just to get by. All the while, they were handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to companies who increased their revenue during the same period. It just shows you what their priorities are.

I can tell you about our priorities. The Labor Party will always defend the super system against efforts from One Nation and the coalition to undermine or destroy it.