Why all the changes? The government wants to raise revenue to keep the budget deficit to a minimum. Possible changes, such as increasing tax rates on super or restricting how much can be contributed, will help them do this.  

Superannuation is a much easier target than making changes to personal tax rates or company tax rates. Super is not front of mind for many Australians, especially younger Australians in the accumulation phase with retirement many years away. Changes can be made with less publicity and backlash.

Both sides of Government have been commenting on superannuation. Last week Prime Minister Julia Gillard failed to rule out changes being made to superannuation, stating that any changes would be in Australia’s long term interest. Opposition leader Tony Abbott declared the Coalition would make no adverse, unexpected changes to superannuation in the first year of government. However, what’s to say changes would not be made after this?

In superannuation’s short history, it has been developed to become a world class system to allow Australians to save for their retirement. Encouraging greater contributions to super will result in more self-funded retirees. This will ease the future social security burden on the government which is important with an ageing population.  

Significant changes have the potential to undo a lot of the good work and confidence people have in the system. For this reason it is important that changes are kept to a minimum.