STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator HANSON (Queensland—Leader of One Nation) (13:53): What's good for the goose is good for the gander. The goose in this case is Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and the gander is the Australian people struggling with the cost of rents and mortgages under his incompetent handling of the economy. One Nation's proposal to allow Australians to choose to divert part of their future superannuation to help with mortgage and rental payments in Labor's cost-of-living crisis is a sensible measure.

Interest rates are up 15 times and expected to rise again before the end of the year. Australians are struggling under net zero, Labor's mass immigration and the Treasurer's management of the economy. They should have the choice to use some of their own savings to make the struggle a bit easier.

Jim Chalmers has come out swinging with the ludicrous claims that One Nation wants to destroy superannuation. I ask: how is allowing people paying rent or a mortgage to access three per cent of their super for only three years destroying superannuation? This is just another lie.

If it's the case, why is Treasurer Chalmers allowing the staff of federal MPs to do it? Why is he enabling his own staff to do it? I can assure you that they won't be doing it as tough as millions of other Australians.

One reason could be that they are getting their 3.4 per cent out of super. The Treasurer allows eligible staff employed by federal MPs to have 3.4 per cent of their superannuation paid out as a fortnightly allowance. Are you robbing these workers of their retirement funds?

It looks like there's one rule for Canberra insiders but a very different rule for those outside the Treasurer's privileged political bubble. This stinks of the hypocrisy we've come to know and expect from the Albanese Labor government. If the next election is going to be a referendum on super, as the Treasurer claims, first let him explain why political staffers can have their privilege while other Australians cannot.

Let him explain to his constituents of Rankin, where his support is dropping like a stone.