Coalition commits to Labor's super deal

One of the key agitators in Labor's leadership fiasco said he won't vote for raids on superannuation.

Penny Wong has refused to comment on 'gossip' about the government's budget plans for superannuation.

Andrew Main asks Clime Investment Management’s John Abernethy how superannuation will go and what the Australian dollar will do in 2013.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey. Source: The Australian

THE Coalition says it will maintain Labor's commitment to boost employer superannuation contributions as the Gillard government continued to fuel speculation it would raid the sector in the May Budget.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey yesterday said an Abbott-led government would keep in place Labor changes to the compulsory employer superannuation contribution from 9 to 12 per cent.

"We have already stated that we are going to continue with that programme to increase it to 12 per cent," Mr Hockey said.

"That is the only initiative out of the mining tax that we have committed to. So, nothing has changed."

The boost is due to start this year on July 1 and will increase a quarter of a per cent in 2012/13 and 2013/14.

It will then jump half a per cent every year until 2020.Julia Gillard again yesterday brushed off speculation her government was planning a hit to superannuation contributions and earnings of the wealthy in the May 14 budget.

"I can tell you with a lot of certainty what we will do. We will increase superannuation from 9 to 12 per cent for working Australians to give them a decent retirement income," Ms Gillard said.

"What you can always do is trust Labor with superannuation. It wouldn't be in this country if we hadn't brought it here."

Ms Gillard said the Coalition if elected would rip money from lower paid Australians under their plan to reintroduce the 15 per cent tax on superannuation for 3.6 million Australians earning $37,000 and under.

"That's one in three workers facing a superannuation cut," she said.

Labor MPs added fuel to the speculation yesterday with Cabinet minister Craig Emerson saying the government's fiscal position needed to be protected.

"Where there are tax concessions that are going to damage the fiscal position of the government of the day of course we need to look at that," Dr Emerson told ABC radio.

"It is the task of every government to make sure the budget is not only sustainable in the short term but also the long term."

Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury would not rule out his party would raid super, despite being asked repeatedly on the matter.

"The minute we start ruling things out we move onto the next thing," Mr Bradbury told Sky News.

Speculation over the budget move follows a call from Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson last year that superannuation tax concessions needed to be changed in order to preserve the tax revenue base as the population ages.

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Wong defends Labor's record on super

FINANCE Minister Penny Wong won't be drawn into "gossip" about whether the federal government plans to adjust the superannuation system in the May budget.

The opposition continues to press the government to reveal what changes it intends to make to super, with rumours it might possibly cut back on tax concessions for the rich.

Sacked Labor minister Simon Crean has said the government should not raise taxes just to fund a return to a budget surplus.

Senator Wong was not forthcoming when asked about speculation the government was planning a raid on super to finance costly promises such as the Gonski school funding changes and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

"I don't get into hypotheticals," she told Sky News on Wednesday.

"I certainly don't get into gossip and what might or might not have been discussed in a cabinet committee."

Senator Wong said the Gillard government was continuing the Labor legacy of the Hawke-Keating era on superannuation by ensuring there was wealth, opportunity and fairness for all.

Increasing superannuation guarantees from nine to 12 per cent and giving low-income workers a tax break on their super showed the government had a proud track record on this issue, she said.

Liberal MP Jamie Briggs said Labor was booking up expenditure against revenue sources which did not exist.

"All we have seen is deficits and debt over the last five-and-a-half years from this Labor party," he told Sky News.

Labor MP Richard Marles said it was Labor that set up the superannuation regime and the current government was increasing employer payments from nine to 12 per cent for some workers.

"If Jamie's mob ever got the reins of power, there is no guarantee there would be a superannuation guarantee under an Abbott government," Mr Marles told Sky news.

"We have made it very clear there won't be any taxes on superannuation withdrawals."

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Labor's media bills killed off

Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy admits its been a challenge to get support from the crossbenchers for his controversial media reform bills. Picture: Kym Smith Source: News Limited

The government's plan for a public interest media advocate to oversee press standards appears set to fail.

THE federal government has dumped the final four media reform bills after it failed to get the backing of enough cross bench MPs to save them.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy stood by his promise last week to shelve the legislation if he could not get backing by today.

Live now: Rolling coverage of the leadership crisis

"If it can't be agreed on by the end of this week then ... we will not proceed with the bills and we will move on,'' Senator Conroy said today before the bills were withdrawn.

The dumped bills covered controversial proposals for a body to oversee the policing of news media by the Press Council which powers to withdraw privacy exemptions from council members should it not safeguard consumer rights. It would have also looked at diversity of media.

The Government could not get a deal on the appointment of a Public Interest Media Advocate -- either as a single person or a panel.

The final hope was a cumbersome mechanism suggested by cross bench MP Bob Katter with a three-person commission selected by a 12-member community and industry panel.

The Government did get passage of two of the six reform bills. The successful legislation covered a cut in fees charged to TV networks and a package affecting the charters of the ABC and SBS.

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott put out a statement this morning asking for an extra five weeks to consider the bills and the amendments put forward by other crossbench MPs.

 The Senate has already passed the first two bills - the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Convergence Review and Other Measures) Bill 2013 and the Television Licence Fees Amendment Bill 2013 - with both backed by the government and opposition.

These set Australian contents quotas on commercial TV, limit the number of commercial networks to three and allow a 50 per cent reduction in licence fees.

But Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the coalition regarded the outcome of the media reforms as a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

"If the government loses that vote, we expect them to call an election," he told reporters.

Labor backbencher Rob Mitchell denied it would be embarrassing for the government if the bills did not pass, saying in a hung parliament it had managed to clear more than 400 pieces of legislation.

"There's bound to be one in a hung parliament that's probably not going to get there. That's just life; you just move onto the next one," he said.

-with wires

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Ita dismisses Labor's media reforms

Australian of The Year Ita Buttrose says the Gillard Government has made clear what is wrong with the current system of media regulation. Picture: Kym Smith Source: News Limited

• Former Cleo editor says reforms simply aren't needed
• Labor hasn't proved there are flaws in the current system, says Ita
• The public should be the "ultimate arbiter" of journalism, she says
• Ministers are 'itching to knife each other'
• Rogue nation praises media crackdown

AUSTRALIAN of The Year Ita Buttrose has slammed Labor's media reforms saying the public should be the ultimate judge of what is appropriate journalism.

The publishing queen told News Limited she was disappointed with the government's package of reforms, announced this week, and did not believe greater regulation of the press was necessary.

"I don't think we need any further regulation," Ms Buttrose said.

News Limited CEO Kim Williams criticises Senator Stephen Conroy's proposed media law reforms

"There are already enough regulatory authorities and it's not really clear what the problem is with the current way of doing things.

"At the end of the day the public makes their own decisions. If they feel we've done the wrong thing they switch us off or don't buy us. The public should be the ultimate arbiter."

News Limited CEO Kim Williams says Senator Conroy's one week deadline for media law reform is insulting

The Punch: Media reform may run out of puff

Ms Buttrose has been a staple of the Australian media landscape for decades. She was the founding editor of Cleo and editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph in the 1980s.

News Limited CEO Kim Williams says free speech isn't a gift from government, it's a gift from democracy

In January Ms Buttrose was announced as the 2013 Australian of The Year at a ceremony on the lawns of Parliament House presented by Julia Gillard.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has come under fire for Labor's media reforms, with many slamming the package as an attempt to constrain freedom of the press.

Senator Conroy has said the measures would be put into parliament next week and needed to be passed by Thursday or they would be abandoned.

This morning he said it was not an imposition to ask parliament to pass the laws quickly because the issue had been debated since 2007.

"For people to suggest that there hasn't been an effective debate around the country, they are just ignoring the facts," he told ABC radio.

He said some of the media coverage on the reforms had been "hysterical" considering the concepts in the package had been in place in the US and UK for years.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said he believed it was unlikely the reforms would pass through parliament.

He said Senator Conroy had done a poor job at selling the package.

"He could not sell fresh fish to starving seals," Mr Turnbull told the Nine Network.

Labor needs to secure the votes of several independent MPs in order to pass the reforms.

But former Labor MP now independent Craig Thomson and independent Rob Oakeshott have both indicated they won't back the package.
 

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