Super swiftie

That means the self-funded retiree will become a distant memory while the working age population will bear a crushing tax burden to pay for pensions.

The government intends to legislate the objective of superannuation as, “to provide income in retirement to substitute or supplement the Age Pension”, with all subsequent legislation assessed against this.

The problem is, its own plan fails the test. Private funds put aside for retirement should be seen as deferred consumption, not a honeypot for a tax-hungry government that cannot control its spending. If it was serious, the government would abandon its $3 billion super tax grab and boost incentives to save money for retirement, so more people were financially independent.

Raising taxes and promoting dependency is not the kind of swiftie we need.